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B K L IAS T. ARCHER & SONS,
1858.
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LONDON. J.RUSSELL SMITH.
The Conductors of this Journal think it right to intimate that, while exercising all clue discrimination in the selection of papers for publication, they do not hold themselves respon- sible for the statements or opinions advanced by the respective authors.
All communications for the Journal are to be addressed to the Editor, Robert MacAoaai, Esq., 18, College-Square East,
Belfast.
CONTENTS OF YOL. «.
Saint Columba.
Notes on the Human Remains found within the Round Towers of Ulster, with
some additional contributions towards a "Crania Hibernica." f Illustrated. J . .
A Dialogue in the Ulster Dialect.
The Irish Dialect of the English Language.
Military Proclamation, in the Irish Language, issued by Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, in 1601
The Braces in Ireland — concluded. ...
Surnames in the County of Down. ( Illustrated.)
The Descendants of the last Earls of Desmond.
Subterranean Chambers at Connor, County of Antrim. ( Illustrated.)
Antiquarian Notes and Queries. ( Illustrated.)
The Archaeology of Irish Tenant-Right.
Notes on Lawns, with especial reference to the one at Bella-Hill, near Carrickfcrgus f Illustrated.)
Errors of Edmund Spenser : — Irish Surnames.
Woods and Fastnesses of ancient Ireland.
Ancient Seals found at Carrickfcrgus. f Illustrated.)
Cinerary Urns discovered near Dundrum, County of Down. (Illustrated.)
Irish Bardism in 1561.
Ancient Iron Fetters. (Illustrated.)
Opening of a Tumulus near Bella-Hill, Carrickfcrgus. ( Illustrated. )
Six Hundred Gaelic Proverbs collected in Ulster.
Antiquarian Notes and Queries.
Page. 1
27 40 47 57 66 77 91 97 101 109
125 135 145 162 164 165 168 169 174 184
Physical Characteristics of the ancient Irish.
Irish Bardism in 1561 — continued.
Ploughing by the Horse's Tail.
Notes on the Human Remains discovered within tlie Round Towers of Ulster — continued
{Illustrated. J Remarks on the early Architecture of Ireland, Six Hundred Gaelic Proverbs collected in Ulster — continued, St. Bcretchert of Tullylease. {Illustrated.) Antiquarian Notes and Queries. {Illustrated.) On the early use of Aqua-Yitse in Ireland. The Ossianic Age.
The Highland Kilt and the Old Irish Dress. {Illustrated.)
The French Settlers in Ireland, Xo. 8 : — The Huguenot Colon)- of Portarlington Ancient Cemetery in Island Magee, County of Antrim. {Illustrated.) ... Antiquities discovered on the Shore of Ballynass Bay, County of Donegal. {Illustrated Fairy Annals of Ulster. — Xo. 1. Antiquarian Notes and Queries.
ontinueii
Page. 191
202
212
221 247
250 267 276 283 294 316 327 346 351 354 362
ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. 6.
Profile of Median Section of Skull, with graduated Circle.
Transverse Sections.
Profile Outlines of three Crania.
Map of the County of Down, shewing the present distribution of the Population by their Surnames.
Map of Caves at Connor, Counlv of Antrim.
Page.
36 36
98
Stone bearing supposed Inscription, found in a subterranean chamber at Connor. ... ioo
Bronze Fibula) and Tubes, found in the County of Antrim. ... ... ... ... 103
Eastern Side and Entrance of the Bawn at Bella-Hill, near Carrickfergus. ... ... 125
Plan of Bawn at Bella-Hill. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 139
Ancient Seals found at Carrickfergus. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1^2
Cinerary^ Urns found near Dundrum, County of Down. ... ... ... ... ... 154
Ancient Iron Fetters. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... jgg
Tumulus near Bella-Hill, Carrickfergus. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 159
Square Cavity formed of masonry, within the Tumulus at Bella-Hill. ... ... ... 171
Skulls found at Mount Wilson and Drumbo. ... ... ... ... ... ... 225
Section of the base of Kilkenny Round Tower, showing the position of Skeletons found
there. ... .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... . . 228
Skulls found at Clones and Annoy. ... ... ... .. ... ... .._ 233
St. Beretcheart's Tomb-stono at Tulhylease, County of Cork. ... ... ... ... 267
Sketch of part of the shore of Kincardineshire. ... ... ... ... ... ... 277
Irish and Highland Costumes, from MSS. and early printed Books. ... ... ... 319
Prince Charles Edward Stuart in the Highland costume, from a medal struck to comme- morate his arrival in Scotland, in 1745. ... ... ... ... ... 304
Merchants' Mark. ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... 33 j
Ancient Cemetery in Island-Magee, County of Antrim. ... ... ... ... 3_jq
Bronze Pins and Fibula; found on the shore of Ballynass Bay, County of Donegal. ... 3G1
SAINT COLUMBA.
Columba, or as he is usually called, Colurub-kille, is the most famous of all the native saints of Ireland, and many have written accounts of his life ; but of his professed biographies there is not one that is good ; nor have we the means of writing one that will be satisfactory to the modern reader. The ancient documents from which the facts of his history must be drawn1 are barren in such details as would now interest the feelings of men ; yet abundantly copious in frigid, frivolous, and incredible narratives : calculated to disgust and repel, instead of attracting, readers. It is no small proof of Columba' s excellence, that his character, after passing through the hands of such writers as the authors of these documents were, comes forth in many respects most amiable and ad- mirable. "With all their narrowness of view, and all their multiplied offences against literary taste, they were unable altogether to obscure the great services which their hero performed to religion and humanity. It may be that, in attempting a sketch of his life, we doom him to suffer once again through the deficiencies of his biographer ; but we shall at least avoid the prolixity with which some of his former historians are chargeable : and, thanks to the labours of Dr. Reeves,b we are far
aThe chief of these documents are, (1) A short Life of Columba by Cummeneus Albus, Abbot of Hv, who died Feb. 24, A.D 669. It has been printed by Colgan, Mabillon, and Pinkerton. (2.) The Vita Sancti Columbw, by Adamnanus, who was also Abbot of Hy, and died Sept. 23rd, AD. 704. Tt has often been printed ; (as by Canisius, by Messingham, by Colgan, by the Bollan- dists, by Basnage, and by Pinkerton ;) but never before with such accuracy, beauty, and completeness of illus- tration as by Dr. Reeves, in the edition which will be more particularly described hereafter. (3) Various short notices in Bede and other ecclesiastical writers ; in the Lives of other Saints ; in the Irish Annals ; in Martyrologies, Obituaries, Breviaries, and Calendars ; also in certain Irish and Latin hymns, and similar writings. (4) A number of minor and more recent Lives of the Saint both in Latin and Irish, chiefly extracted from the foregoing, (o.) A life written by Magnus O'Donnell the chief of Tyrconnell, in the year 1520; embodying most of the particulars mentioned in the pre- ceding documents, together with others, the source of which is now unknown. It exists in MS., but portions of it were translated into Latin and printed by Colgan, Many of its statements well deserve the epithets of "stuff," "trash," &c , freely applied to them by the learned Dr. Lanigan in his Ecclesiastical History. The
principal modern writers on the Life of Columba are Ussher, Ware, Dr. Smith of Campbelltown, and Lani- gan : to whom must now be added Dr. Reeves : — " nee pluribus impar."
b See the Life of St. Columba, Founder of Hy; written by Adamnan, ninth Abbot of that Monastery :— the Text printed from a MS. of the Eighth Century, with tfie various readings of six, other MSS. preserved in different parts of Europe, To which are added copious Notes and Disserta- tions, illustrative of the early History of the Columbian Institutions in Ireland and Scotland, /ij/ William Reeves, D.D., M.R.I. A., Curate of Kirkinriola in the diocese of Connor. — Dublin, printed for the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society. 1857. 4to. pp. 497 — The very best edi- tion of the most important work on the history of Colum- ba and of the Irish church in the sixth century ; and among the best, if it be not indeed the very best of all the editions of any similar work ever published. It is scarcely possible to speak too highly of the zeal, learning, and sound judgment displayed in the preparation of this work. It contains the text of Adamnanus, from a copy almost contemporary with the author ; and it gives the various readings of every other accessible copy, of most of which the editor has made or procured collations ex- pressly for the use of this edition. The text is illus- trated by Notes containing all the information that
better furnished than any of the moderns who have preceded us, with the needful historical aids. That learned, able, and judicious writer, has saved future inquirers respecting the life and character of Columba the trouble of instituting much long and difficult research. He has thrown himself iuto his subject with a zeal a-kin to that of Columb-kille himself, though directed to a different object ; prosecuted it with a loving perseverance ; and has, in consequence, drawn together almost, if not absolutely everything, that the ravages of time have spared, which can throw light on the life and labours of St. Columba. We need not say that we take from his rich pages almost all the facts em- braced in the following outline : — for the opinions which we occasionally express, we are, of course, exclusively responsible.
The saints of Ireland are divided into three orders, or races.0 The first includes St. Patrick, his contemporaries, and immediate successors : all of these were bishops, and several, — like the great Apostle of Erin himself, — were foreigners. The second generation, — if we may use the expression, — commenced about 110 years after the landing of St. Patrick: few of its members were bishops, many were presbyters : they employed many different masses or liturgical forms of religious worship, and observed various monastic rules, instead of the ancient rule of St. Patrick which had hitherto been universally followed. They excluded women from the monasteries in which the ministration of females had formerly been permitted. Like their predecessors, they practised an ecclesiastical tonsure different from that used upon the continent ; and observed the festival of Easter on the fourteenth day of the paschal moon.d The third order of saints commenced about the beginning of
scholarship, industry, and devotion to a self-appointed " that introduced by St. Patrick; one Mass and one cele- task, have enabled the editor to disinter from the rub- bration," that is one uniform liturgy ; " one tonsure, and bish of ages, illustrating the places, persons, and events one Easter, or paschal cycle- They did not reject the mentioned in his author. Copious Prolegomena afford attendance or society of women; because, being founded all the details that can be desired respecting the history upon the rock of Christ, they did not fear the wind of of the work and of the author ; together with a Chrono- temptation." The next order continued till the close of logical Summary of St. Columba's Life ; while the Addi- the sixth century. It consisted of 300 saints, few of tional Notes (or Appendix) at the end of the volume, whom were bishops, the greater part having been pres- largely and in a most interesting style discuss a great byters: their other peculiarities are stated above, almost number of important questions, the treatment of which in the words of the writer of the Catalogue, would have occupied too much space in the body of the d So the author of the Catalogue affirms : but as this work. It is illustrated with beautifully executed origi- statement, if literally interpreted, would make the Irish nal maps of Ireland and of Ily, in the time of St. Co- absolutely quartodecimans (a charge from which they lumba ; and with five fac-similes of ancient MSS , the are expressly freed by Bede, though he strongly opposed value of which will be appreciated by every one who has their views and practice upon the Easter controversy,) — been engaged in such pursuits. We congratulate Dr. as Columbanus, who vigorously upheld the Irish rule Reeves on the successful accomplishment of his impor- for the observance of Easter, expressly repudiates, in his t ant undertaking; and we congratulate the Established Epistles on this question, the practice of Quarto- Church of Ireland, which can afford to employ such a decimans,— and as no example has been brought forward man in the obscure labours of the curacy of Kirkinriola. of the celebration of Easter, by any Irish church or c We here refer to a classified list of the Saints of the community, on any other day of the week than Irish church down to year 665, which has been pub- Sunday, — I presume that either the writer was abo- lished by Ussher: {Frimord, p. 913 seqq.) divided into gether mistaken, or that his meaning was, that the three orders. The first comprehends St. Patrick, his Irish saints computed the paschal Sundays, (i.e. the companions, and their successors, till about A.D, 542: Sundays on which Easter might fall,) to be those which those we are told included three hundred and fifty happened from the 14th to the 20th day of the moon. This bishops, who were all either Romans, Franks, (the writer was contrary to the early Roman practice, which forbad should have said Gauls,) Britons, or Scots, (that is Irish.) Easter to becelebrated sooner than the 16th of the moon: " They observed one and the same Rule," (or discipline,) and to the Alexandrian, (afterwards introduced,) which
the seventh century : "it consisted of holy presbyters with a few bishops, numbering in all a hun- dred, who dwelt in deserts and lived on water, herbs, and alms. They declined the possession of private property. They had diverse rules and Masses, and variety of tonsures ; some having the corona, others wearing their hair. They differed also as to the paschal solemnity : for some of them celebrated the feast of the resurrection from the fourteenth day of the moon, others from the six- teenth." This third order, it may be observed, did not begin till after the death of the subject of our memoir. We can imagine the spirit in which ecclesiastical history would be written by men who looked upon these points as the most important in the lives of the great personages whose char- acters they undertook to describe !
Columba, the most illustrious saint of the secondary race, was born on the 7th of December, A.D. •521/' at a place called Gartan, not far from the centre of the modern Donegall. He was of noble, and even of royal lineage : f his father, Fcdhlimidh, was great-grandson to jNTiall of the Kme Hos- tages, who was monarch of Ireland at the beginning of the fifth century ; and his grandmother was daughter to Loam, the founder of the Hiberno- Scottish or Dalriadic kingdom in North Britain, which has given to the ancient Caledonia its present name of Scotland.5 Aethnea, the mother of Columba, was of the royal line of Leinster ; a family which, in remoter times, had also given sove- reigns to Ireland. This illustrious pedigree, connecting St. Columba with the most ancient and
fixed the celebration for the Sundays between the 15th and 21st. The difference led the Irish, in some years, to observe the Easter festival a month earlier, in othc rs a month later, than the churches in Britain and on the continent. The controversies on this subject were long and vehement: but were finally settled about the begin- ning of the 8"' century, when the Irish church consented to abandon its ancient usage and conform to that of Rome.
« It is stated in the life of St- Buite, the founder of Monaster boice, that on the very day of his death he prophetically announced the birth of an infant, who should, in the 30th year afterwards, come thither, dis- close his (St- Buite's) sepulchre, and mark the limits of the cemetery : a prophecy which the author of the Life says applied to Columb-kille. The calendars place the death of St- Buite on the 7th of December, which is thus determined to be the day of Columba's birth ; this we may accept as true, disregarding the legend- The year is not so easily settled, because the Annals vary in fixing the death of St- Buite : it may. however, be deter- mined thus. Adamnanus says that Columba was in his forty-second year when he came to lly : and that he arrived there in the second year after the battle of Cool-drevny : fl'ntf 2da, p. 9.) Now, th»t battle was fought in the year .'><;!, according to Tighernach : con- si quently, the saint, arrived at Hy in the year 563, and was born in the year 521- But, on all such questions, the reader who has access to Dr. Reeves's notes, will < btain full satisfaction: see on this point Prolog., p. lxix: and Note a, p. .'II.
'Seethe Pedigree, as given by Dr. Reeves, Adamn., p. 8, n — It runs thus, counting upwards : Columba was the son of Fcdhlimidh, the son ot Fergus Cennfada, the
son of Conall Gulban, (ancestor of the Cinel Conaill,) who was the son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, monarch of Ireland from the year 379 till 405 — The above-named Fergus Cennfada, grandfather to St. Columba, was mar- ried to Erca daughter to Loarn, who was the son of Ere, and first king of the Scottish Dalriada. Again, Aethnea, the wife of Fedhlimidh and mother of Columba, was daughter of Dimma, who was ninth in descent from Cathaeir Mor, monarch of Ireland in AD- 120. This last genealogy may, perhaps, be the dictate of hearsay and general belief; but the others come within the period of written memorials.
B The emigration of a colony of the Scots, (i.e., Irish,) from Dalriada (the northern part of the present county of Antrim) in the latter part of the fifth century, to a region to which they gave the same name, comprehend- ing the Mull of Cantyre and the adjacent rarts of Cale- donia, (which was then occupied by the Picts and Bri- tons;) the gradual extension of the Scoto-Irish dominion over the Highlands and Islands, by conquest and al- liance, until the representatives of the invaders ac- quired the sovereignty of the whole of North Britain, about the ninth century, and soon after gave to it its present name of Scotland, — are facts now so well known, though once keenly disputed, that Innes, Sir Walter Seott, and other Scottish writers, though imbued with the strongest feelings of nationality, instead of contest- ing, admit, and solidly prove them. If any doubt re- mained, Dr Reeves, in his notes on Adamnan^ww/m, has given it the coup degruce- From the leaders of this emi- gration, through Malcolm Can-more, her present majesty Queen Victoria is descended; she, therefore, may bo reckoned among the kindred of St Columb a
powerful families both ia Erin and Albin, must have co-operated with his personal qualities in •nving to him that influence which he so long exercised over a race remarkable for their reverence for the blood and line of their native princes.
His birth is said to have been preceded by an omen of his future greatness. An angel appeared to Aethnea, in a dream, and presented her with a robe of extraordinary beauty ; which she no sooner accepted, than he tore it from her and flung it to the winds. To her inquiry why he had done this, the angel replied that such a garment was too splendid and magnificent to be left with her ; and, looking after it, as it floated upon the breeze, she observed it unfolding itself and expand- ing till it spread beyond plains, mountains, and forests; and heard a voice which said, "Lady, be not grieved, for thou shalt present thy husband with a son, so fair and lovely, that he will be reckoned among the prophets of God ; and he is destined by the Most High to be the guide of souls innumerable to the heavenly land."1'
The early years of Columba were spent under the tutelage of a venerable presbyter,1 to whom, also, the legends inform us, a celestial intimation was given, expressing the interest of heaven in the child confided to his charge. Once, on returning to his dwelling-place, after celebrating Mass, he found his whole house illuminated with a bright light, proceeding from a ball of fire that hovered over the face of the sleeping child. Trembling and astonished, he threw himself on the ground, perceiving that the grace of the Holy Spirit was shed from heaven upon the object of his care.k Legends of this kind, at present, excite either a smile or a sigh in the majority of readers ; but at the time when the early biographers of Columba composed their narratives, such incidents were the subjects most sought after, most valued, and most dwelt on. In fact, miracles of this kind form the staple of the ancient lives of Saint Columba j1 and whatever information we obtain concerning his personal conduct and inward spirit is only let fall accidentally, while such prodigies arc related circumstantially. The only other facts that are stated concerning the childhood of Columb-kille are that he was distinguished for an angelic sweetness and purity ;m and that he applied himself dili-
h Adamnanus, L. iii. c- 1. — The incident is copied from the history of the descent of the Holy Spirit, on the day
Cummeneus Albus, c. 1. It is possible that Aethnea may of Pentecost. (Acts, ii., 3, 4 )
have had such a dream; and that she and her husband l Of these we may take that by Adamnan as a sample. may have been influenced by it in devoting Columba to He entitles his work, Vita S'incti Colinnbce ; " the Life the service of God. There are many parents now living of St. Columba ;" and he divides it into three Books : who would not altogether disregard such an occurrence, of which the first treats of Prophetic Announcements On the other hand, it could very readily have been ima- by, or concerning Columba ; the second of his Miracu- gined or invented in after times; and bears a suspicious lous Powers; and the third, of Angelic Visions and Visi- resemblance to many similar narratives in the lives of tations. To this division he strictly adheres, totally re- other saints. gardless of the chronological order. In fact, if it had
i Called by Adamnan, Cruithnechanus; whose name, as not been for the angelic visitations which accompanied
Dr. Reeves conjectures, is probably preserved in Kil- his birth and death, the biographer, apparently, would
cronafrhan, a parish in the diocese and county of Derry. have had no opportunity of mentioning that Columba
(Adamn., p 191, n.) was born or that he died. It is fer this reason that the
k Adamn, L iii., c. 2, p 191-2. The legend seems to Vision of Aethnea, already alluded to, is introduced, not
have been formed by combining the story told by Livy, at the beginning of the Life, but in the last book, be-
of the lambent flame which played around the head of cause it comes under the head of Anjelic Visitations, the infanr Servius Tullius, in the palace of the first Tar- ™ Adamnan, 2nd. Pref., p. 9 " Who, from his very
quin, and Tanaquil's interpretation of the omen, with childhood, being devoted to Christian instruction and
gently to the studies which were prescribed for him. So it is said that, while yet very young, lie was able to recite the psalms, — responsively, as it would appear, — with a certain bishop, to whom he had gone on a visit in company with his preceptor."0
When old enough to profit by instruction of a more advanced order, he was sent to the seminary founded and conducted by the celebrated St. Finnian,0 at Magh-bile, now Movilla, in the present county of Down, near the head of Strangford Lough, and not many miles from Belfast. The nature of the training which he here received is described to us in four words — sapient tarn Sacrce Scriptura: addiscens, " applying himself to the study of holy Scripture." p It was while he was enrolled as a student under Finnian, that Columba was admitted into holy orders ; but as yet only to the rank of deacon. "We are told that, on one occasion, by some accident, wine for the administra- tion of the sacrament was not to be found : whereupon Columba, who had heard the officiating priests lamenting the mischance, took up a pitcher, aud proceeded to the well, as if for the purpose of fetching the spring- water required in the service. Having filled his vessel, "he blessed it, in- voking the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who turned water into Avine at Cana of Galilee ;" upon which a similar miracle was wrought ; and the saint, returning from the well, presented the pitcher with its contents to the ministrants, saying, "Here is wine which the Lord Jesus hath sent for the celebration of his own sacrament !" This, we are told, was Saint Columba's first miracle ; the credit of which, however, he was too humble to take to himself ; ascribing it to the holy bishop Finnian.q
We know neither the age of Columba when he was first placed under the direction of St. Fin- nian, nor the exact period of his departure from Movilla ; but we find him while still a deacon, and therefore, probably, not long after he had quitted that school, studying divinity under the direction of an aged man named Gemmanus, in some part of Leinster.r Here, too, his supernatural gifts
the pursuit of knowledge, and preserving by the gift of Blessed Saviour's First Miracle ; (John, ii-, 1-11.) To
God the purity of his body and the innocence of his make the parallel complete, the change of water into
soul, displayed, while yet on earth, his fitness for the wine is also made the first miracle of St- Columba : and
heavenly life." Of course, this relates to the mature Adamnan himself points out its identity with the first
age as well as to the earlier years of St. Columba. miracle of Christ
» This visit, and the occurrence to which it led, are rLanigan considers the name Gemmanus' to be a mis- related by O'Donnel) only; (ap. Colg., TV. Th., p. 393 :) taken reading for Gernianus; (Eccl. His., p. 119, 120 ;) the source is suspicious ; but the incident by no means but Dr. Ileeves has advanced solid reasons for believing improbable. The Bishop's name is given as Brugacius. that the text is correct : it is so read in the. Reichenau
"All the modem historians of St. "Columba, without MS- of the eighth century, and in several others. Dr. exception, agree that Finnian of Maghbile, or Movilla, Reeves identifies Gemmanus, the instructor of St. Co- was the head of the institution in which he was placed lumba, with a person of that name who is mentioned to receive his advanced education ; but Adamnan twice in the life of St. Finnian of Clonard, and is there called calls the teacher Findharrus: (p- 13, and p. 103 :) yet in a "Carminator," who wrote " a certain magnificent ode" the same chapter in which the last example is found, he (carmen quoddam magnificum,)— which a few lines far- names him Vinnianus, and twice he calls him Finnio, ther down is called a '' Hymn,'— by the recital of which a i.e., Finnian : (p. 95.) But the two names, according to barren field was made fertile. (Act., SS-, p 395, b.) This their etymology, signify nearly the same thing ; Finni in person appears to have resided in the neighbourhood of denotes Wh ite, Findbarr. White-headed; and perhaps the Clonard: but the place is not named- It is possible saint may have borne both titles. But see the note by that, before*completing his studies, St. Columba would Dr. Reeves, p. 103. desire to improve himself under a competent instructor,
vAdamn. 1, ii.. c. 1- p. 103. in the composition and modulation of sacred lyrics:
4 Adamnan, ubi supra — The story is a parody on our nor would this object of his studies be inconsistent with
were displayed. A young maiden, pursued by an assassin, sought refuge under the protection of the aged Gemnianus, who happened to be reading in the open air : he, in trepidation, called Columba to his aid, that by their united efforts they might repel the murderer ; but the ruffian, undeterred by their sanctity, laid his victim dead at their feet with a thrust of his lance. Not with impunity, however. " How long," exclaimed Gemmanus, " will the Righteous Judge permit this outrage and our dishonour to remain unavenged?" — "The very moment," replied Columba, "that the soul of this murdered maiden ascends to heaven, the soul of that murderer sinks down to hell !" And, on the word, the slaughterer of the innocent fell dead to the earth before the eyes of the holy youth ; — "even," (so the historian affirms) " as Ananias dropped down at the rebuke of St. Peter."8 He is also said to have spent some time under the tuition of St. Finnian of Clonard, in Meath ; * but it is possible that this statement arises from confounding together the two saints, — Finnian of Movilla, and Finnian of Clonard, — who were both celebrated as teachers of theology, and were also contem- poraries. He is further reported to have studied under Mobhi at Glasnevin,u and Kieran at Clonmacnoise ;v but the latter statement is impossible: for Clonmacnoise was not founded till two years after Columba himself had erected a similar institution j w and the former rests on slight authority.
It was while he was in Leinster that he was seized with a desire to engage in undertakings simi- lar to those by which so many of his countrymen in that age had made or were then making them- selves famous ; namely, the erection of monasteries, which were also seminaries of learning, centres
the expression of Adamnanus, that while yet a youthful meneus ; and is by him expressly attributed to Finnian
deacon he resided with Gemmanus, — "divinam addis- of Movilla. Moreover, in relating it, Adamnan calls the
cens sapientiam," — " making further progress in divine person of whom he writes, "venerandum episcopum
science." (See Adamn. 1. ii-, c 25, p. 137 ; and Dr Finnionem ;" a title which cannot apply to Finnian of
Reeves's note-) Clonard, who never attained or accepted the episcopal
J"Et dicto citius, cum verbo, sicut Ananias coram dignity. The authorities are given fully and impar-
Petro, sic et ille innocentium jugulator, coram oculis tially by Dr. Reeves ; Adamn., p. 195, 196. notes.
sancti juvenis, in eadem mortuus cecidit terrula." « 0' ' Donnell apud Colgan, ( Vita, &c, 1. i.. c. 43.) The
(Adamn. 1. ii. c. 25, p. 13S.) It would almost seem as if the statement is irreconcileable with the established facts of
biographer had wished to intimate the mythical charac- Columba's history; for he was, as we have seen, ordained
ter of the legend, by referring to a source from which it a deacon while yet at Movilla; and, allowing that he
might have been, and probably was, copied was admitted into that order at the early age of twenty-
1 Columba is numbered among the disciples of Finnian two, (the present canons prescribe twenty-five,) he could
of Clonard, in the Life of that saint, and also in the Life not have left the place sooner than the year 544:
of St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise, and in that of Columba of he then studied for some time under Gemmanus;
Tir-da-glas. (Trias Thaum., p. 457. j "With these autho- but Mobhi died, according to the Four Masters, in
rities Dr. Reeves concurs. "We do not attach to them A.D. 544: that is, correctly, in the year 545, the very
any considerable weight, for there was a tendency, year preceding that in which the monastery of Derry
among the writers of the lives of eminent doctors, to was founded: there was, consequently, no time for
enrol every distinguished person of the age, if possible, Columba to have pursued his studies either at Clonard
in the list of those whom they had instructed : and, in or Glasnevin.
this case, an occasion was afforded for the legend, by the »" Smith," (Life of Columba, &c, p- 8.) "has a fable
contemporaneous existence of two Finnians ; the one at concerning Columba having also been under Kieran of
Movilla, where Columba undoubtedly was a student; Clon, that is, Clonmaenois. Where he got it I cannot
the other at Clonard, of which place neither Cummeneus tell." — Lanigan, Eccl. His., ii.. p. 221.
nor Adamnanus make any mention in connection with w" Clonmacnoise was founded in 548, by Ciaran mac
Columb-kille. It is worthy of note that the only in- an t-saoir : Filius artificis." Dr- Reeves's Adamn., p. 24,
cident in Adamnanus which Dr Reeves understands as note. Derry was founded by Columba, in A.D. 546. applying to Finnian of Clonard is copied from Cum-
of missionary exertion, and mother-churches to the districts in which they were situated. Nor let this desire appear to any Christian of the present day either irrational, fanatical, or visionary. The most determined foe to monasticism might find it difficult to point out an enterprise better cal- culated to be of real service to mankind, in the age and state of society which then existed in the Bri- tish Isles.x The place which Columba chose for his first monastery was called Daire Calgach, " the Oak-wood of Calgach ;">' occupying the site of the present city of Londonderry. He obtained a grant of the ground from his kinsmen, the chieftains of the district : * and, having collected a sufficient number of associates and disciples, founded an institution, which, though for a long scries of years its light was eclipsed by the superior lustre of his other monasteries, was yet the most permanent, and became, in time, the most distinguished of all his establishments.* It was erected in A.D. 546. b About seven years afterwards, (wihout relinquishing his authority over Daire -Calgach,c) he founded a similar monastery at Dair-magh, now called Durrow, in the King's County .d It was better
* That the monastic system and monastic institutions did, in the middle ages, perform most important services to religion and humanity, has been admitted by Guizot, (History of Modern Civilization,') and other writers by no means favourable to conventualism as applied to the existing state of society. That they really served the important purposes enumerated in the text, no unpre- judiced man, acquainted with history, will deny ; while they were also asylums in which the victims 01 their own bad passions, or of the violence of other men, sought shelter ; and in which former disturbers of the peace often found a sphere of innocent and useful labour. But the discussion of this subject would open up too wide a field to be traversed in a note.
y Daire- Calgach. — The first part of this compound, it is universally agreed, signifies an oak or an oak wood; the second is a derivative, signifying " sharp as a thorn, or spike," hence a fierce warrior ; and may have been the proper name of many other chieftains as well as of the Galgacus, whose exploits, as commander of the Caledonians, have been immortalised by Tacitus. It had, like many other forests in Ireland, a name, before the days of St. Columba ; but probably very few inhabi- tants, till settlers were invited by the erection of his church and monastery. In the work of Adamnanus, the name is translated, Roboretum Calgacki; and it appears to have borne the name of Calgach till the middle of the tenth century, when it began to be called Bairi-Ckoluim- cillc, — i.e., Derry of Columb-kille, from the saint to whom it owed its importance. Its modern title of London- derry is owing to the property of the soil having been vested in the guilds or incorporated companies of the city of London, in the beginning of the seventeenth cen- tury. In conversation, and as the see of a Bishop, it is now called Herri/ .simply.
* The early Irish life of Columba, and, copying from it, O'Donnell makes the land of Daire-Calgach a dona- tion from " Aedh the son of Ainmire who was king of Erin at that time." {Reeves a A damn., p. 160, n.) But Aedh could not have been more than ten years old in the year .':4i> ; and, in the days of Tanistry, no child of that age could have power to alienate land in perpetuity,
or indeed at all ; and it is possible that the story aroso from confounding Daire Calgach with Dair-magh, the site of which was granted to St. Columba by another Aedh, the son of Brendan. {Reeves's Adamn-, p. 23, n ) Much more cautious is the statement of the Four Masters, who say that the saint obtained the land " from his own tribe, i.e., the race of Conall Gulban, the son of Niall." (But see the argument advanced by the writer of the History of Londonderry, in the Ordnance Memoir of Tern- plemore, p 18, who contends that in the sixth century the site did not belong to the Cinel-Conaill, but to the Cinel-Eoghain.) The Four Masters erroneously fix the date of this foundation at A.D. 535, the year of the birth of Aedh, son of Ainmire; at which time Columba was in the fourteenth year of his age ; and far too young to be the founder of a monastery.
a This is manifest from the circumstance that the Abbot of the Great Monastery ot Derry is often deno- minated in the Annals of the Forr Masters, and in other Irish Histories, Cumharba Choluim-cillc, "the successor of Columb-kille,'' and was allowed to exercise jurisdic- tion even over the monastery of Hv: (see Annals of Ulster, A.D. 1164: Four Mas., A.D 1203.)
b This is the date assigned in the Annals of Ulster, and adopted by Ussher, AVare, Lanigan, Reeves, and almost all other competent historians. The mistake of the Four Masters, who place it in the year 535, (i.e., 536) has been already noticed.
c Dr- Reeves says of the saint's emigration to Hy, or, Iona : — "St. Columba, when he departed, severed no ties, surrendered no jurisdiction : his congregations re- mained in their various settlements, still subject to his authority." {Adamn. Prol., p Ixxv.) With this state- ment the whole narrative is perfectly consistent : and the fact is important witli reference to a question that will be hereafter considered.
a This name, which signifies either "the Oak of the Plain,'' or "the Plain of the Oak," is usually expressed by Adamnanus in Latin, "Roboretum Campi, Roboris Campus, Roboreti Campus, or Roboreus Campus;" though in one place he trives to it the native title, " mo- nasteriuni quod Scoticc dicitur Dair-magh." {Adamn.
known in foreign countries than an}- other of his conventual institutions in Ireland.' It appears to have been while he was engaged in the erection of this celebrated monastery that he was raised to the priestly order by Etchen, a bishop resident at Clonfad, in "Westmeath : and here a mistake is said to have occurred, which, if it actually happened, shows a laxity in matters of canonical discipline that may to some appear surprising. It is stated that Columba was sent to Etchen with testimonials from several neighbouring ecclesiastics, recommending him as a candidate for consecration as bishop. The saint having arrived at Etchen's church, inquired for the bishop ; and was told, " There he is, ploughing in the field." He soon accosted the prelate, who gave him a most friendly welcome ; and, on being informed of the object of his visit, professed his readiness to comply : however, by mistake, he ordained Columba as a presbyter, instead of consecrating him as bishop. On discovering the error, Etchen was desirous of rectifying it by consecrating the saint next day ; but Columba, looking on the matter as providential, declined the intended honour, and declared his intention to remain till the end of his life in the priesthood which had thus unex- pectedly been conferred upon him.f There is but slight authority for the story ; and perhaps it had no other foundation than the known fact of Columba having chosen to remain through life a pres- byter, when his merits and his fame would have justified him in aspiring to the highest order in the church.
Of the manner in which he employed himself during the years of his life that were spent at Daire-
p. 23 ) There were several other churches which bore the same name; among the rest, one in the modern county of Kilkenny, and another in Roscommon, from which this foundation is to be carefully distinguished. After Columba's removal to Hy, we find Lasrianus act- ing as superior of the monastery of Dair-magh : (Adamn. pp. 57, 58 ;) though even then the founder felt himself in- terested in its inmates, and in some measure responsible for their welfare. The precise year of this foundation is not known- Bede states that it was erected before the emigration of Columba to Hy. (Hist. Eccl., 1. iii , c, 4.) Tighernach states that the site was granted to the saint by Aedh the son of Brendan, king of Tebhtha ; he became lord of that territory in the year 553 : be- tween that year, therefore, and AD. 563, when the monastery of Hy was constructed, the erection at Dair- magh must be placed.
« Bede, in the passage already referred to, joins Dair- magh with Hy as the two principal establishments of Columba. His words are: " Fecerat, autem, priusquam Brittaniam veniret, monasterium nobile in Hibernia, quod a copia roborum Dearmach lingua Scottorum, hoc est Campus Roborum, cognominatur." (His. Ec-, 1. iii. c. 4.)
:'This story is not told by either Cummeneus or Adam- nanus ; it is given in a scholium, by one Alaguire, on the Felire of Aengus the Culdee, whence it has been copied by O'Donnell, {Life of Columba, 1- i., c. 47, ap. Colgan,) and others. The violations of canonical rule, as now under- stood and practised, are manifest; first, in the desire t ) raise a deacon at once per saltum to the episcopal dignity; and secondly, in the expectation, which the
friends of Columba and the saint himself had cherished, that Etchen would proceed without the aid or pre- sence of two other prelates to consecrate a bishop ; coupled with his willingness to do so on finding out that he had misconceived the nature of the application made to him. Of both practices, however, there are many examples in ecclesiastical history, — — some of which, but by no means all, that might have been adduced, — are given by Dr. Reeves, (Adamn- Additional Notes, p. 349) Some persons have regarded this anecdote as favouring the identity of the order of priest and bishop in the ancient Irish church ; but it manifestly proves the very reverse. Dr. Lanigan endea- vours to obviate the irregularities implied in this trans- action by applying to his favourite hypothesis of Chore- piscopi or Rural Bishops: (Eccl. Hist-, vol. ii., p. 128, &c.;) but that is a mere shift, and quite inconsistent with the spirit of the story : for, it was obviously intended, both by Columba and his commendants, that he should have been raised to a high rank and dignity, suitable to his merits, not to a very inferior and unimportant one ; neither would there have been any exercise of voluntary humility in Columba's preferring to remain a presbyter, rather than be consecrated Chorepiscopus, if no higher dignity had been offered to his acceptance. It would have been easy for Dr. Lanigan to reject the narrative altogether ; for which, indeed, the authority is very slight; but many similar narratives, respecting other eminent men, remained in his documents : and he seems to have thought it safest to dispose of them, once for all, by inventing an order of rural bishopn.
Calgach and at Dair-magh, his biographers give us no account whatever. It is certain that he was, in after ages, revered by his countrymen as the founder of an immense number of churches and re- ligious houses in various parts of Ireland. Dr. Reeves has compiled a list, gathered from every accessible quarter, of the establishments the foundation of which has been ascribed to him, or in which his memory was revered. e It is possible that some of the institutions enumerated in it were not actually erected by St. Columba, but merely dedicated to his honour : while, on the other hand, — when we consider the casual manner in which the facts collected by Dr. Reeves, and by his forerunner, Colgan, are mentioned in the original documents whence they have been extracted, — it is at least equally possible that a great many churches and convents may have been built by Columb- kille, of the foundation of which we have no record. His countrymen believed that he had founded three hundred religious establishments in his native land : h and, although that number is, doubt- less, greatly exaggerated, still the existence of such a tradition shows that he had spent much time and devoted a vast amount of energy to these pious works ; and that he had carried them on with a success which eclipsed the lustre of all former achievements of the same kind in this island, excepting only those of St. Patrick. But the professed historians of Columb-kille have scarcely thought such enter- prises worthy of even a passing notice. Adamnanus does not notice them at all : Cummeneus scarcely at all. The splendid and enduring monuments by which Columba stamped the impress of his mind, not merely on his contemporaries, but on his countrymen for many generations, they thought unworthy of a special record.' A few of them, but only a few, are briefly and obscurely alluded to in the narrative of some silly superstition or some legendary tale ; and this is all the information that is left us, in several instances, upon points which arc now the subject of legitimate and enlightened curiosity. We long to know the circumstances which disciplined the soul of Columba ; the mental culture which he received ; the friends, guides, and counsellors of his youth ; the associates and partners of his toils in after years ; the motives by which he was actuated ; the trials and struggles, the
b See Adamnan; Additional Note, G- page 270, &c. — churches and monasteries of which he was truly the
Among these institutions Dr. Reeves enumerates — Dur- founder.
row, Derry, Kells, Tory, Drumcliff, Swords, Raphoe, ''Such is the number assigned to him in the old Irish Kilmore, Lambay, Moone, Clonniore, Kilmacrenan, Gar- Life. Adamnan calls him "a father and founder of mo- tan, Glencolnikill (County Donegal), Ternpledouglas, nasteries ;" and speaks of " his monasteries founded in Assylyn, Skrcen (County Meath). Ballynascreen. Skreen the territories both ofthePictsand the Scots of Britain." (County Londonderry), Drumcolumb, Columbkille (Co. ' It may suffice to mention that the most copious of Longford), Emlaghfad. Glencolunibkille (County Clare), his ancient biographers— Adamnanus— does not expressly Kilcolumb, Knock, Termon-Maguirk, Cloghmore, Co- treat of the erection even of the church and monastery lumbkille (Co. Kilkenny), Ardcolum, Armagh, Morn- of Uy, of which the writer was himself abbot, and for ington, Desertegnv, Clonmany, Desertoghill, Ballyma- the use of whose inmates the Life was originally com- groarty (County Donegal), Ballymagrorty (near Derry), posed! There are allusions to Columba as the founder
and Kskaheen in all thirty-seven. It is proper to add of the place: but no account whatever of the event itself.
that I'r. Lanigan strongly doubts whether Kells was Sucli being t lie case with respect to Ily, it would be vain
founded by Columba, or in his lifetime: and absolutely to expect any more precise notice of the other establish-
re.jeets his' claim to be considered the erector of Swords, ments of St. Columba. Let theblame not be cast on his
Raphoe. the Skreens, Drumcliff, Tory, Glcncolmkille in modern historians, if oftentimes theyfail to do justice to
Clare, and others; while, nevertheless, he admits that his memory, or faithfully to chronicle his achievements :
the lo^s of ancient records, and the absence of any pro- the fault lies with those who were connected with him
per history of the saint, have doubtless deprived us by far closer ties, yet neglected to transmit the memory
of the means of establishing Columba's title to several of his merits which would have perpetuated his fame. vol,, vi. n
10
fears and hopes, the encouragements and disappointments that he experienced ; the opposition that he encountered, and the means hy which he overcame it ; the instruments that he employed in carrying out his plans ; the success that attended his efforts ; the failures against which he had to hear up ; and the influence, moral and spiritual, which resulted from all these " experiences," both in his own spirit and the hearts and character of other men. But for such knowledge we sigh in vain. What would we not give for a volume of letters between Columba and Kieran, on the plans and operations of their daily life, at Dairmagh and Clonmacnoise ! But such information is beyond our hopes. For the thoughts and feelings of the soul of Columba, we must dive, not into the pages of his biographers, but into the recesses of our own minds : — in other words, the knowledge of them is banished from the domains of historical testimony, and is to be sought for only in the regions of imagination. One thing, however, is plain, that Columba never could have reaped the splendid success which undoubtedly attended his efforts, had he not been a man of commanding powers, of undaunted zeal, of earnest self-consecration to his work, and of a character which inspired the re- spect and confidence of those among whom he lived. This by no means implies that he was alto- gether free from blemishes and defects. Some such are pretty clearly intimated by writers who yet were desirous of setting the fame of Columba in the brightest light. According to the ideas of the time, these blemishes, even though serious, were not deemed inconsistent with sanctity ; but still he must have been a man eminent for piety and virtue, according to the notions of his age ; else, he could never have attained the influence which he exercised over the chieftains, who granted him lands for the churches and monasteries which he founded, — over the devotees, who became their inmates, addicting themselves to a life of toil and self-denial, that they might share in his labours and partake of his reward, — the youth, who flocked to them from all quarters, to imbibe his instructions, — and the people generally, by whom it is evident that Columba was revered, during life and after death, as one of the holiest of men and a chief among the favourites of heaven.
After spending several years in the pursuit of his pious and benevolent enterprises in Ireland, St. Columba resolved to transfer the scene of his labours to another land : and this purpose he executed in the year 563 ; being then forty-two years of age. His motive in forming this resolution has been the subject of much discussion ; and we cannot hope, in the compass of our short narrative, to free the question from all obscurity, although Ave do not think that the darkness is altogether impenetrable.
The early authorities, when they advert to the motives of Columb-kille for leaving his native land, ascribe to him none which arc not in themselves virtuous and honourable, and at the same time perfectly consistent with his previous as well as subsequent history. Adamnan says that "he sailed from Ireland to Britain, desirous of going on pilgrimage for the sake of Christ" k The vene-
k Do Scotia ad Britanniam, pro Christo peregrinari where else : but to the extension of the glory of Christ,
volens, enayigavit.— ( Prcef. 2da. p. 9.) " The phrase and the advantage of souls." (Dr> Lanigan, Eccl. Uiit.
pro Christo docs not refer to Columba's own salvation, ii. 152. )[ whioh he might have worked out at home as well as any
11
rable Bcdc expresses himself in similar terms : he says that Columba " came from Ireland to Bri- tain to preach the word of God to the provinces of the Northern Picts."1 In an ancient Life of Columba, found in a MS. at Brussels, (which is called the Salamanca MS.) the same motive is assigned:"1 and no other is alluded to in the Martyrology of Donegall, printed by Colgan ; which, though recent, was undoubtedly founded upon ancient testimonies.11 These statements seem very explicit. The reason attributed is sufficient : and it agrees perfectly both with the previous and the after life of St. Columba.
But there are more recent authorities which assert that Columba' s reasons for withdrawing from Ireland were of a description far less honourable to himself ; that, instead of a voluntary exile, for the spread of the Gospel, his removal was the result of a civil or ecclesiastical sentence, pronounced upon him for offences which he had committed in his native land ; and that the founder of Hy, the apostle of the Picts, and the father of Christianity in many wide regions of Xorth Britain, which till his day had been under the control of paganism, was, in fact, a banished if not an excom- municated man, undergoing sentence for his crimes ! Of those who take this view of his history, some regard his exile as the fulfilment of an ecclesiastical sentence for scandals against religion ;° some as an expiation, enjoined by a spiritual counsellor ;p and others as a penance, self-imposed,"1 for such offences. Of the first hypothesis, it is enough to say that it is refuted by the whole tenor of his after-life. Had Columba been banished from Ireland by a sentence either of a civil or ecclesiastical tribunal, he would have gone forth with a brand upon his brow, and a stain upon his character, which would effectually have ruined his reputation and destroyed his influence, both among the Christians and the pagans of his time. How could a banished convict, — especially if banished by the authorities of the church, — have procured religious men as his companions, pro- pared to share his exile, and to submit to his authority as the ruler not only of a single convent,
1 Venit de Ilybernia Britanniam, prtedicaturus vor- i> Sanctus vero Columba visitavit S. Lasrianum, con- bum Dei provinciis septentrioualium Pictorum — Hist, fessorem suum, post bellum de Culdremne, petens abco feci. 1. iii- c. 4. salubre consilium ; quo scilicet niodo post neceni nml-
1,1 Postqmim vir sanctus ad ea, qua', quondam mente torutn occisorum, benevolentiam L>ei ac remissioiieni
proposuerat, implenda, ad peregrinationis videlicet pro- peccatorum obtinere mereretur. Beatus igitur Lasria-
positum et ad conye.rtendos adfidem I'ictos, opportunum nus, divinarum scripturarum scrutator, imperavit ut tot
tempus adesse viderit, patriam suam reliquit, et ad animas a poenis liberaret quot aniniarum causa perdi-
insulam Jonani prospero navigavit cursu. — (Codex Sal 'm. tionis extiterat : et hoc ei prrecepit ut perpetuo moraretur
asciti'dby Dr. Reeves from Colgan, Trias Thaum.p.S2^a.) extra Hibernian in exilio. (Vita Laxriani, ap Colgan, Tr.
n Salutis animarum et. propaganda fidei astuans desi- Th. p. 401, b.) Observe that here the sentence is stated
di'rio, in Albioueni profectus, ilii extruxit famosum illud to have been one of perpetual exile,
liyense et alia plnrin'ia inonastcria et ecclesias. — Mar- 4 " Columba himself, according to O'Donnell, declared
tyrol. JJungakrisis, up. Colgan, Tr. Th. p. 483. his determination to become a voluntary exile : blaming
■> Post luec in Synoilo Sanctorum Hibernhe gravis (pie- himself for the disastrous consequences, not only of Cul-
rela contra, Sanctum Columbain, tanquain authorem tarn dremhuc, but also of two other battles which had been
multi sanguinis effusi, instituta est. Undo coiumuni de- caused by his means. He is represented assaying to liis
<■/■■ 'o consuerunt ipsum debere tot animas, a gentilitate kinsmen, ' Milii juxta quod ab Angelo prrcmoiiitus sum,
conversas. Chnsto lucrari, quot in isto pnelio interie- ex llibernia emigrandtira est, et dum vlxero exiilanduni,
runt. — (<>' D'inio II uj). Colgan, Acta Sane', p. HI").) It is quod nici causa plurimi per vos cxtincti sunt,'" <S:c. —
needless to state that all. or almost all, the references to (t>r. /,'•■<• x, Ad nun. p. L'5J.) Here, also, the penance is
Colgan and citations from him in these notes, are copied declared to involve banishment for /He. from Dr. Beeves.
12
but of multitudinous institutions in the Highlands and Islands of Caledonia ? How could he have established his influence over the Dalriadic colony which, maintaining, as it did, continued inter- course with Ireland, could not be ignorant of his circumstances and character? How could he have gained the influence which he undoubtedly acquired among the unbelieving Picts ? This argument may appear perhaps too subtle to bear much weight ; but there is another consideration which seems to us to establish the negative of this theory. If Columba's exile was the fulfilment of a sentence of any court, it must have been a perpetual exile. To send him abroad, and allow him to return when he pleased, would have answered no useful purpose. Indeed it is expressly stated that he was condemned to perpetual banishment from Ireland/ IS'ow, Columba did not live in perpetual banish- ment. He returned, at least once — probably more than once — to his native land ; he came back, to all appearance, without any license or reversal of his supposed sentence ; he came back, not in secrecy and silence, but in a character of great dignity and authority, to attend a solemn convention of contending chieftains, in which he acted as mediator between them ; and in which his counsels were heard with respect, and his decisions solicited, upon questions of the utmost importance, in which the interests and passions of powerful princes were vehemently enlisted.3 This is not the course that would have been followed had Columba been an outlawed and a banished man : nor surely would Columba have been allowed to retain, as he confessedly did, his full power and au- thority over all his monasteries in Ireland, had his exile been a, penance, (whether self-imposed, or prescribed by another,) on account of notorious transgressions against the laws of God and man.
The offence, for which this penalty is said to have been enjoined on Columba, is that of foment- ing wars and occasioning bloodshed in his native country. Keating, who adopts the theory that expatriation was " a sentence" pronounced upon St. Columba by Saint Lasrian, (otherwise called Mo- laise,) thus explains the grounds of it: — " ]Sow, this was the cause why Molaise sentenced Colurn- cille to go into Alba," (i.e., Scotland ;) " because it came of him to occasion three battles in Erin : viz., the battle of Cul-Dreimhne, the battle of Rathan, and the battle of Feadha :" — and he goes on to describe the cause and circurnstanees of each. "We need not enter upon the consideration of the last two engagements here spoken of : because it is demonstrable that, if fought at all, they must have taken place after the settlement of Columba in Hy,* and could not possibly enter into the
_r See the cita'ionsfrom the Life of St. Lasrian, (other- (Uladh) till the year 580, twenty-six years after the depar-
wise called St Molaise of Devenish,) and O'JDonnell, in tare of Columba from Ireland ! The Annals do not men-
the last two notes. tion this battle at all — The other action, that of Cul-
s The allusion is to the Great Convention of Druim- feadha, is recorded by Tighernach as having been fought
ceatt. of which more hereafter. in the year 587, twenty-four years after that event. He
^ * The battle of Rathain, or Cul -rathain, (now called attributes the success of the victor to the prayers of Co-
Coleraine,) is said, in the Preface to a Hymn beginning lumba- It is very probable that the conquerors in such
Altus I'romtor, (which is attributed to St- Columba,) to encouuters, and their posterity, would wish the idea to
have been fought •' between him and St. Comgall, contend- go abroad that they always fought under the protection
ing for the church of llos-torathair." However, other of so powerful an intercessor. But are we on that ac-
anthorities represent the actual combatants as secular count to impute to Columba the blame of hostilities which
chieftains; the two saints having only blown the trum- occurred while he was in another region, and occupied
pets, as it were, on each side. But Fiachra, the leader on in quite a different description of enterprises? Comgall a side, did not become chief of his territory
13
grounds of the supposed sentence. The battle of Cul-Dreimhnc, however, took place before the emigration of St. Columba, and may deserve a somewhat more detailed consideration.
It occurred, according to the annals, in the year 561." The contending parties were, on the one side, Diarmait, son of Fergus Cerbhoil, King of Ireland, and on the other, Aedh, King of Con- naught, and his confederates, chiefs of Tyrconnell and Tyrone. The latter were victorious. The causes of the war, as stated by Keating, (and also by the Four Masters,) were two-fold -.—first, the slaughter of Cuman, son to the king of Connaught, who was killed by Diarmait while under the protection of Columb-kille. This is the cause assigned in the Leahhar na h-Uidhre of Ciaran, — a semi-bardic compilation, which is one of Kcating's authorities. The other cause, — which he takes from the Black Book of Malaga, (a work of which Dr. Lanigan speaks very contemptuously,) is, that Diarmait had pronounced a false judgment in a case in which Columb-kille was a party. It is stated that the saint had borrowed a book from St. Tinman, and made a copy of it without the owner's knowledge. Finnian claimed the son-booh, or transcript, as his property : and Diarmait, who had been chosen umpire, decided in his favour, on the principle that " to every book belonged its own son-book, as to every cow her own calf."v The authors who adopt these legends as history leave it to be inferred that Columba, feeling himself aggrieved by the conduct of Diarmait, stirred up the chiefs of the Cincl-Conaill and Cinel-Eoghain to war. Some of the annalists ascribe the vic- tory which they obtained at Cul-Dreimhne, to the efficacy of his prayers ; and it is plainly im- plied that the fact of his having prayed for the success of his friends, and prevailed, was one of those which influenced his judges in pronouncing sentence upon him. But this may be unhesitatingly thrown aside : for, whatever may have been the state of religion in the sixtli century in Ireland, it is impossible to believe that any body of Christian ecclesiastics, or even of laymen, would condemn any man to a penance, because it had pleased the Almighty to hear his prayers ! The other grounds of censure are not more probable. Diarmait had put to death the son of the King of Connaught, under circumstances which would appear to have involved something of treachery, as well as im- piety, according to the ideas of the time : it would not require the instigation of St. Columba to induce the father to rush to arms to avenge his slaughtered son ; nor would the saint's influence be needed to prevail on him to seek the assistance of the race of Xiall in prosecuting the war. As to the story about the son-book it is simply ridiculous. The fathers of the [rish church were extremely anxious to multiply copies of the Scriptures and other sacred books; and, it' such a transaction had taken place, Finnian, instead of censuring Columba, would have applauded his zeal. Besides, if any such circumstance happened at all, the owner of the book must have been Finnian of Movilla : for Finnian of Clonard died at the very least nine years before the battle of Cul-Drciinhne.w 2\ow,
" The Four Masters erroneously place it at A 1). 555 ; » The whole of the passages referred to are given in
the other annalists at 501. If the date affixed by the full by Dr Reeves. A damn. p. -18. &c.
Four Masters be assumed as correct, the expulsion of « The Annals of Iniiisfiillen fix the year 552 as that of
Columb-kille must have been debyed till eight jears the death of Finnian of Clonard : and their authority is
after the commission of his crime. preferred by Ussher, Ware, uud Lanigan, to that of the
14
Finnian of Movilla was the early friend and instructor of Columba, and continued to maintain the most amicable relations with him till after the time fixed for this imaginary quarrel.* Add to this that the authorities in favour of all these stories are modern and of suspicious credit ; and that they contradict each other as to the person by whom the sentence was pronounced ; some making it to be the decision of an ecclesiastical tribunal ; some the penance imposed by a confessor ; others the self-pronounced sentence of the penitent himself; — and we shall, perhaps, see reason to agree with Dr. Lanigan, "that this is not history, but poetry : and that there is scarcely a word of truth in it, except that such a battle was fought."7 We agree with this eminently learned writer, that it is probable enough " that Columba prayed for the protection of his kinsmen and their subjects against the fury of Diamiait;" and that this may have excited the displeasure of the monarch and his partisans. It is certain that, for some cause or other, Columba, previously to his departure from Ireland, (but at what exact time is uncertain,) had incurred the disapprobation of several influential persons ; in so much that he was about to be excommunicated by a synod at Teilte, " for some venial and very excusable causes," as Adamnan assures us, " and not rightly, as appeared in the event." But St. Brendan of Birr, who was present at the meeting, having declared that he beheld " a pillar of five going before the man of God, and holy angels accompanying him across the plain on his way to the synod," the persons assembled not only desisted from going on with the excommunication, but treated Columba with the utmost respect and veneration.1 It is quite uncertain to what period in the life of St. Columba this narrative relates ; but, if it has reference to the two years which fol- lowed the battle of Cul-Dreimhne, it puts an end at once to the stoiy of a penance being prescribed to St. Columba in any form ; " seeing that the sjmod acknowledged that he did not deserve any censurc." On the whole, it seems to us as futile as it is unnecessary to inquire for other causes of Columba' s removal to the "Western Isles of Scotland than that which the earliest and best authori- ties ascribe to him ; namely, a desire to spread Christianity among the inhabitants of that then pagan and benighted region. He had been eminently successful as a herald of the faith in his own land : lie now determined to devote his life to the conversion and civilization of the heathen tribes who were settled within sight of his native hills.
To us it appears highly probable that the whole story of Columb-kiUe having been exiled on ac-
Four Masters, who state it to have happened AD. 548: c. 4, p. 195-0. It is of little consequence to the present
both dates are irreconcileable with the account of the bat- argument whether the last sentence refers to the first
tie of Cul-dreimhne, (which was fought in 561,) as having voyage of Columba to Britain, or to some subsequent oc-
arisen out of a quarrel between Finnian of Clonard and casion of crossing the sea : in either case, it shows that
Columba. _ the Finnian spoken of could not be the Finnian of
v Alio in tempore, yir sanctus venerandum episcopum Clonard, who was dead, at the very least, fifteen years
Finnionem, suum videlicet magistrum, juvenis senem before the emigration of Columb-kille. It also shows
adiit : quern cum sanctus Finnioad se appropinquantem that up till that very time Columba and Finnian of Mo-
vidisset, angelum Domini pariter ejus comitem itineris villa were on terms of mutual friendship : and that Fin-
vidit : etut nobis ah expertis traditur, quibusdam as- nian professed for Columba the utmost veneration. The
tantibus intimavit fratribus, inquieus, " Ecce nunc vi- term "juvenis" seems to be applied to the saint, (who
deatis sanctum advenientem Columbam, qui sui com- was now at least forty-two years of age,) merely by way
meatus meruit Inhere socium angelum ceelicolam."— of contrast to the venerable age of Finnian.
l/adnn iliebus, Sanctus, cum duodceim commilitonibus » EccIes.Uist.il 148.
diseipulis, ad Britanniam transnavi-avit — Aihimn. l.iii. * Adamn. 1. iii. c. 3, p. !02-4.
15
count of the battle of Cul-dreimhne, is owing to the simple fact of Adamnan having mentioned that the arrival of the saint in Scotland and the erection of the monastery at Hy took place two years after that battle was fought." This he has done manifestly for the purpose of fixing the date of the latter event, by referring it to another which was well known in Irish history, and duly recorded in the annals of the kingdom ; but subsequent writers connected the two events together, as cause and effect. The story about the son-hook, which is said to have led to the battle, is easily explained. There was, among the Cinel-Conaill, — the tribe to which Columba belonged, — a book, containing a copy of the Psalms, said to have been written by the hand of the saint ; which, in after times, was enclosed in a curiously wrought silver shrine, and was held to be of such marvellous sanctity that, if carried three times from right to left round the warriors of the tribe, on the eve of an engage- ment, it ensured to them the victory over their enemies. Hence it was called the Cathach ; which may be translated, the Battle-look.h But the more recent historians of Columba, who werealready imprcssed with the notion that he was a stirrer up of feuds and dissensions, overlooking the real ground of this designation, explained it as given to the book on account of its having been the cause of the battle in which the saint had, as they supposed, borne a part. Thus we can not only show that the legend was positively untrue, but easily and naturally account for its origin.
Agreeably to the customs of the age, and to his own practice on previous occasions at home, he commenced his undertaking by founding a monastery ; and the place which he chose for its site was the small and then uninhabited island of Hy, or I, afterwards called Iona, or, from his own name, I-Columb-kille. It is about three miles long by one or one-and-a-half in breadth ; and lies at the distance of an English mile to the south-west of the island of Mull. It was in the bounds of the Pictish kingdom ; yet not so far from the Scottish or Dalriadic territory as to prevent the occupants from receiving aid, in case of need, from their kinsmen and fellow Christians of that region. Columba was accompanied by twelve companions, — the normal retinue of a mediaeval missionary.0 It is said that he obtained a grant of the island from the king of the Scottish colony : d a concession from
* Adamn. Prcef. Ida. p. 9 : also, 1. i. c. 6, p. 31. 112. . . . The character and condition of the MS.
b " The hook which St. Columba is said to have tran- are indicative of extreme old age. hut it is questionable scribed from St. Finnian's original, is the copy of the whether it is in the handwriting of the saint himself." — Psalms, which forms, with its silver ease, the ancient Dr. Reeves; A damn Add. Note, 15: p. 249, 250. reliquary called the Cathach, of which O'Donnell gives c Adamn. 1. iii. c. 4: (already cited in note x si/pra.J- this curious account :— ' Now the Cathach is the name of Dr. Reeves gives a long list of saints, who in their the hook on account of which the battle was fought, and church-building and missionary undertakings set out it is the chief relic of Columb-cille in the territory of the with twelve companions- {Adamn Add. Note I. p. 22!) Cinel Conaill Oulban : it is covered with silver under &c.) He also gives the names of the twelve companions gold : and it is not lawful to open it ; and if it be sent of Columba : (Add, Note A. p. 245,) with all the par- thrice riffht-iri.se round the army of the Cinel Conaill ticulars of their history that it is now possible to ascer- when they are going to battle, they will return safe with tain.
victory ; and it is on the breast of a comhorbaor a cleric, d The Annals of Ulster and of Tighernaeh ascribe the
who is to the best of his power free from mortal sin, that donation of Hy to the generosity of Conall, king of the
the Cathach should be, when brought round the army.'" Dalriadic Scots in Caledonia : on the other hand Bede
The Cathach is still in existence, and in the possession of refers it to the liberality of King Brudeus and the Picts :
the O'Donnell family. " A drawing of the cover is given (His. /•></. 1. iii. e.4.) and territorial considerations lend
in Betham's 'Antiquarian Researches,' vol. i., p. 109; strength to this statement. It is, however, deserving of
and a fac-siinile of four lines of the enclosed MS., ib. p. note that he makes the grant subsequent to the conversion
16
Brudcus, the Pictisli king, is also mentioned, but this could only have been made subsequently to the conversion of Brudeus to Christianity. He was at first quite unfriendly to the Gospel. When he hoard that Columba was approaching his fortress, he ordered the gates to be closed ; but, at the sign of the cross, made by the fingers of the saint, and a slight blow from his hand, they flew open : and the king then paid remarkable attention to the unbidden guest. e Soon afterwards he embraced the Christian faith. The Magi (so Adamnan calls the priests of the Pictish religion) tried all their arts to prevent the missionaries from preaching to the people. AVhen other means failed, they endea- voured once to drown the voice of Columba by noise and shouting ; but the saint, determined to frustrate their wiles, immediately commenced chanting the 45th Psalm ; and, his voice rising into the air, was reverberated like thunder from the clouds, so that the king and people were struck with fright and consternation. f Manifold were the miracles which Columba is said to have wrought during the progress of his mission in Caledonia — in truth, they are too many for the occasion ; there are few readers vrho would not have felt grateful to his biographers had they spared the recital of many which they have recorded. Among the rest we are told that " after prayer upon his bended knees, he brought back to life the son of a certain person of humble rank, after he had been dead, and his exequies celebrated ; and restored him to his father and mother."5
In the pi-osecution of his mission, he appears to have visited almost every part of the dominions of the .Northern Picts, comprehending the whole of modern Scotland to the North and North-West of the Grampians, and likewise the Western Isles. It is certain that he found this wide region heathen, and that he left it, at least nominally, Christian. He is said to have penetrated even to the Orkneys, and to have formed cells (as churches were then denominated) in that remote region. Many of these parts he visited oftcner than once ; and wherever he penetrated, he built churches, founded monasteries, and established religious teachers.11 It is to be regretted that his enterprises in this spiritual warfare are only expressed to us in general terms, so that it is not possible to trace his progress chronologically, nor even to identify, in all cases, the scenes of his labours ; but we know enough to be able to assert that no part of Pict-land was left unvisited by himself or his emissaries ; and that in almost every place to which he came he left the traces of his presence in the churches which he erected, the religious institutions which he set on foot, and the conversion of whole tribes
of Hie VirJs- " Qurc videlicet insula,'' (i.e. Jona,) " ad given is prolix and circumstantial: though the story of jus quidem Britanniae ptrtinet, non mugno ab ea freto Cumiueus, on which that in Adamnan is founded, is very discreta, sod donatione Pietorum qui illas Britannite brief. *' Post genuflexionem quoque et orationeiu sur- plagas incolunt, jamdudum monachis Scottoruna tradita, gens, in nomine Domini, mortuum cujusdam plebei filium eo quod illas prsedicantibus lidem Christi pereeperint." suscitavit; et post celebratas exequias, patri et matri (His. Eccl. 1. iii. e 3) Both accounts were probably reddidit." {Vita S. Col. c. 22. ap. Colgan.) "The de- true. The island was uninhabited: Columba and his tails in Adamnan are evidently told in imitation of comrades settled in it, under the protection of the Matt, ix 24, and the parallel passages." Dr. Reeves, neighbouring chieftain Conall ; and. on the conversion A damn. p. 140. n.)
of Brudeus, received a fresh title from the paramount b Dr. Reeves has collected the names of thirty-two
lords of the soil. places in the district of the Soots in Britain, and twenty-
■■ Adman 1. if c. 35. p. 151-2. one in that of the Northern Picts, including some in the
1 A damn. 1. i c. 37 : p. 73-4. Orkneys, where the memory of Columb-kille was spe-
sAaamn. 1. ii. c. 32. p. 145-G — The account there cially revered.— A damn. Add. Note H. pp. 289-298-
17
and multitudes to the Christian faith. His principal establishments, however, were those on the islands of lona, of Tiree (Terra Ethica1) in its neighbourhood, and of Hinba, the locality of which is undetermined. He had also establishments in the island of Skye, and in many other places. But he did not confine his labours to the Picts. The Scots of Britain, who were his countrymen, and with whose royal family he was closely allied by birth, occupied a portion of his care. k He planted several monasteries among them ; among the rest one near Loch- Awe, in Argyle- shire, in which he placed one of his monks, named Cailten, as prior.1 He visited also the territory of the Christian Britons in Strath-Clyde, and appears to have kept up some degree of intercourse even with the south-eastern parts of North- Britain that were occupied by the Anglo-Saxon pagans. At least we find, in the latter years of his life, some Anglo-Saxons at Hy ;ra and, it is highly pro- bable, that these were converts whom he had made in his journeys into the districts in which they had settled. Over all his institutions, in Ireland as well as in North Britain, Columba exercised a fatherly oversight, often sending messengers to visit, inspect, and regulate those that were at con- siderable distances from him ; going to them himself when necessary ; and receiving letters and mes- sengers from time to time, sent to inform him of the state of the communities, and especially to request his advice in all cases of difficulty. He was remarkable for his attention to strangers ; receiving all persons, of whatever country or condition, who came to him, with kindness and a decent hospitality. It may be added that his monasteries were not only religious houses, but seats of learning ; and that their inmates, when not engaged in their spiritual duties, employed themselves either in copying the Scriptures and other religious books, or in agriculture, and in the useful labours which were needful for their own support." They appear even to have erected the churches, and other buildings which they occupied, with their own hands.
Great was the influence which Columba acquired in the scene of his labours in North Britain.
i The island of Tiree is situated to the North West it but for a prophetic message of Columba to Cailten,
of lona, at the distance of about twenty miles; it is desiring him to come to lona in all haste He did v.
much the larger island of the two, being nearly eleven and was informed that he was to die within a week :
miles long, and varying in breadth from one to three which he did of course !
miles ; and though low and sandy is fertile ; whence it m Two of them are mentioned in Adamnan. One was seems to have derived its name : (Tir-ith, " the Land of Generous, a baker : (1. iii. c. 10:) the other was called barley.") It contained two monasteries in the time of Pilu: (1. iii. c. 22.) It must be remembered that, at the Columb-kille, one at Arletrain, (Adamn- p. 66, in the times of which we are treating, the mission of Augustine Title to R. i. eh. 36 :) founded by Findchanus, a pres- to the Anglo-Saxons had not commenced ; and that the byter, supposed to be an associate of St. Columba; the Britons, according to Bede and Gildas, never had coin- other in Magh-Lunge, (Campus Lunge,) over which municated the Gospel to that people ; hence a strong Baithen presided, who was undoubtedly one of the com- probability that these men had been converted by Co- panions of the saint : and who succeeded him as Abbot lumba himself, or his emissaries-
of Hy. To these ecclesiastical establishments many u Dr. Reeves gives in his Appendix an Additional Note,
others were afterwards added : of which a full account N: (p. 334-339:) which is in fact a copious and most
has been given by l)r, Reeves, in the pages of this interesting Dissertation, entitled Institutia Hi/ensis, in
Journal, vol. ii. pp. 233-244. which every part of the system, order, and discipline
l; The territory of the Scots then nearly coincided pursued at Hy, is accurately discussed. We are sorry
with the modern county of Argyle. that our limits prevent us from attempting an analysis
I A damn. 1. i. c. 31. p. 60. We assume, with Dr. of its contents : but they ought to be carefully studied
Reeves, that thejiumen Aim of the text, is the river by every person who wishes to understand the cecono-
which forms Loch Awe. We should not have heard of my of an Irish monastery in the sixth century.
18
Of this we have an instance in the fact of his being selected to inaugurate Aidan, who, upon the death of Conall, was elected king of the Scottish or Irish colony in North Britain. The saint would have declined the honour ; — indeed his own wishes were in favour of Eogenan, the brother of Aidan ; but being repeatedly commanded, in nocturnal visions, to inaugurate the chieftain ap- pointed by the tribe, he complied, and the consecration took place on the island of Hy.° The form of consecration was read out of " a glass book ;" perhaps a parchment, framed and glazed, on which the formula was written. This is said to be the earliest recorded example of the inauguration of a king in Christian times ; but, from the mention of a book, the usage would appear to be of a still more ancient date among the Irish or Scottish people.
Passing over many incidents wliich are either trivial, incredible, or of more than doubtful au ■ thority, we come to an event which makes a considerable figure in the life of St. Columba, and indeed in the history of the times, — the convention of Druim-ceatt, held in the year 575, as stated by Dr. Reeves, though other authorities place it sixteen years later. It is a striking example of the wretched manner of writing ecclesiastical history that prevailed in the seventh century, that, although Adamnan mentions the convention at Druim-ceatt and the presence of Columba at it, he does not give us the slightest information respecting the occasion of the meeting, the persons of whom it consisted, the form of their deliberations, or the decision at which they arrived ! All that he says about it is contained in the recital of two prophecies wliich were then delivered, and a short chapter of six lines, entitled, " Of the cures of diverse diseases which were effected at Dorsum Ceate" that is Druim-ceatt. p We arc therefore compelled to have recourse to such authorities as the "semi-
0 " <^t another time when the venerable Columba was nals of Ulster in A.D 574: by the Annals of Clonmac- on a visit in the island of Hinba, he one night saw in a noise in 587: but Colgan, O'Flaherty, and Lanigan have trancean angel of the Lord sent to him, who held in his assigned 590 as its date. The place where it was held hand the Glass Book of the Inauguration of the Kings ; is fixed by O'Donnell as in the region of Ciannaehta which the venerable man, at the desire of the angel, Glen-geimhin, now the barony of Kenaght in the County took from his hand, and began to read. And when he of Londonderry ; and is described as a pleasant mound, refused to inaugurate Aidan as king, according to the on the banks of the river Roe, not far from the point forms contained in that book, because he liked his where it ceases to be affected by the tide. " The precise brother Eogenan better, the angel suddenly put forth spot where the assembly was held, is the long mound in his hand and struck the saint with a whip: the livid Roe Park, near Newtownlimavady, called the Mullagh, mark of which remained on his side all the days of his and sometimes Daisy Hill." {Br. Reeves, Adamn p. 37. life: and he added, ' Know for certain that I have been n.) Adamnan mentions the assembly as the occasion on sent to thee by God with the Glass Book, that thou which Columba delivered a prediction, that Domhnall, mayest inaugurate Aidan as kins, according to the words son ot Aedh, the king of Ireland, should survive all his wliich thou hast read in it : and if thou refuse to comply brothers, become a famous king, should never fall into with this second command, I will smite thee again.' So the hands of his enemies, and should die in old age, in when this angel of the Lord had appeared on three sue- his own house, and on his own bed ; which happened cessive nights, holding the same Glass Book in his hand, accordingly. (1. i. c. 10.) He made a somewhat similar and had repeated the injunction respecting the inaugu- prediction," at the same place, concerning Scanlan, son ration of the king, the Saint, in obedience to the word of of Colman, who was then a prisoner in the hands of the Lord, crossed over into Hy, and there, as he had Aedh: which it is needless to repeat. (I. i. c p. 38, 39.) been commanded, inaugurated Aidan as king, who ar- The brief chapter alluded to in the text, is here trans- rived about the same time. Whilst repeating the words lated entire. " Concerning the cures of Diverse Disuses, of inauguration, he prophesied of things yet to come, which were effected at Drumceatt. This man of exemplary concerning his sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons : life, (as it hath been handed down to us from those who and putting his hand upon his head, whilst inaugurating, had personal knowledge of the facts.) during the days he blessed him.'' — Adamn. 1. iii. c 3. p. 197-8. " on which he remained for a short time at Drumceatt on p The convention of Druimceatt is placed by the An- his journey to the convention of kings, healed the infir-
19
bardic" Leahhar na N UidJire, O'Donnell, and Keating, whose statements are not very clear, not very- consistent, and not very trustworthy. It would, nevertheless, appear probable that the convention consisted of the monarch, the provincial sovereigns, and the heads of religious houses in Ireland; and that it Avas held for the purpose of deciding some points which were at issue between Aedh, king of Ireland, and Aidan, king of the Dalriadic settlement in North Britain. It would seem as if the king of Erin had claimed supremacy over the Scoto-Irish colony in Caledonia; on the same principle, perhaps, as that on which his predecessor, Diarmait, is said to have adjudged the possession of the " son-book" to St. Finnian, — that " to every cow belongs her own calf ;" — while, on the contrary, Aidan, having now become a monarch in another country, not only maintained his right to be an independent sovereign, but asserted a claim to the dominion of the ancient Dalriadic province in the north of Ireland, of which he and his family were the hereditary chiefs. q The matter was referred to the decision of St. Columba. Perhaps the abbot of Hy in Scotland, and of Durrow (Dair-magh) iind Deny in Erin, was unwilling to provoke the hostility of either party by an adverse decision. At all events, he referred the case to Colman the son of Conigellan, who awarded that the Scottish 3 )ulriada should be an independent monarchy ; that the Irish Dalriads should be bound to follow the kings of Erin in then wars and hostings, but should pay tax and tribute to the Icing of Alba.' If this decision was actually pronounced, the latter part of it was never fulfilled. It is further stated in a " semi-bardic composition," the Abhra Choluim-cille, contained in the Leabliar na K Uidhre, that one object of the assemblage was to procure the banishment of the bards and "Antiquaries," who had scandalously abused their privileges ; but that Columba prevailed on the monarchs to be con- tent with limiting their number, curtailing their "j)oetic licenses," and restricting their emolu- ments.8 Dr. Lanigan accepts this as history : we concur with Dr. llceves in attaching to it but little weight. It seems very like a device of a bard, in later times, to shelter himself and his order under the mantle of Columb-kille and the royal robes of a whole congress of princes and kings.
Adamnan informs us that Columba remained but a short time at Druim-ceatt ; and, though he gives few particulars, leads us to believe that he made no long stay in Ireland on this occasion.1 It is highly probable that he took the opportunity of visiting the churches and monasteries which he had founded in his native land ; remedying abuses, if such existed, and encouraging his com- munities to persevere in the good works which they had undertaken. It is to this period of his life
initios of various sick persons, by invoking the name of rSee the authorities cited by Dr. Reeves, ubi supra.
Christ. For, either by stretching forth his holy hand, » This account " is given in the prefaces to that somi-
or by ttie aspersion of water blessed by him, or by the bardic composition, the Amhra Choluim-cille ; and is to be
touch of the hem of his garment, or by the blessing of found at full length in Keating's account of the conven-
something such as salt or bread, received from the saint tion at Druimceatt" (Reei'es, Adamn- p- 80. note )
and dipped in water, those who believed, received their '"Once upon a time when the holy man after the
perfect health." (L. ii. c 6'. p. 113) The idea of these congress of the kin^s at Druim-Ceatt was returning to
miracles is borrowed from Actsiii.,6 ; v. 15; xix. 12, &c. the watery plains," &c (L. i. c. 4!). p. 92.) This would
'i For a full account of the political causes which are seem to imply, that he set out on his return to Hy soon
stated to have led to this celebrated convention, we refer after the congress was concluded: — though the "length
to Dr. Reeves's Note e, on Adamn-, 1. i. c. 49 : p. 92, Sec. of his visit to his native land is not specitied.
20
that we arc disposed to refer his interview with Alithir of Clon-macnoise," as well as those with Comgall of Bangor/ and Bishop Conall of Coleraine ; which are placed at this date by the historian. The latter entertained Columba at a public banquet, having collected almost innumerable contribu- tions for the purpose from the people of the country." Of these interviews we have few particulars ; but it would seem that the saint was everywhere received with the respect due to his distinguished character and services.
After his return to Hy, and exactly thirty years after his first arrival in that island, — an epoch which he had often prayed might be that of his departure from life, — he received an announcement from heaven in a vision, that his presence on earth was required for four years longer, at the end of which time he would be removed to the heavenly world.1 He spent the interval in the same exer-
u Alithir was the fourth abbot of Clonmacnoise, having succeeded Mac Nessie, who died June 12th, 585: after which time the interview must have taken place, which is thus described by Adamnan. " Once upon a time, the blessed man, remaining by divine permission some months in the interior of Ireland, whilst regulating the monastery that in Irish is called Dair-Magh, was pleased to visit the brethren of St. Kieran's monastery of Clon- macnoise, As soon as his arrival was announced, all the monks assembling from the farms near the convent, together with those that were in it, following their abbot Alithir with all alacrity, went forth to meet St. Columba, beyond the rampart of the monastery, as if he had been an angel of the Lord ; and bowing their faces to the ground at sight of him, he was kissed by them with all reverence. Singing psalms and hymns, they conducted him in honoured procession to their church ; and constructing a canopy of wood for the saint as he walked, they caused it to be supported by four men, moving with equal steps, lest the aged Co- lumba might be inconvenienced by the pressure of that multitude of brethren. At that very hour, a young domestic, contemptible in face and dress, and not much in favour with the superiors, came behind Columba as secretly as he could, that he might touch if it were but the hem of his garment, without his knowing or per- ceiving it. But this was not hidden from the saint ; for the thing which, being done behind him, he could not s >e with the eyes of his body, he discovered by those of the spirit. Therefore stopping short of a sudden, and reaching his hand behind him, he catches the boy by the neck, and pulling him forward, places him before
his face He then says to the trembling lad,
' Put forth thy tongue !'.... and says, ' Though this boy be now so contemptible, let no one despise him : for from this hour .... he will greatly please you ; and advancing each day in learning and know- ledge, he will be a great man in your congregation,' " &c, &c. — This was St Ernan; who told the story to Segineus in the hearing of Failbe: by the latter it was communicated, along with some other wonderful facts, to Adamnan. (L. i. c. 3, pp. 23-25.) If this visit did not take place at or after the congress of Druim-ceatt, it implies a second voyage of Columba to Ireland, after his settlement in Hy ; for Alithir did not become Abbot till long after the last-named epoch,
v " Once upon a time, when the holy man after the conference of the kings, Aedh, the son of Ainmire, and Aidan, the son of Gabran, at Druim-ceatt, was returning to the watery plains, he and the abbot Comgell" [of Ban- gor] " were seated one fine day not far from the fortress of Dun-Cethern," [now called the Giant's sconce, near Coleraine, in the County of Londonderry,] "and water was brought in a vessel of bronze, from a neighbouring spring, to wash the hands of the saints. When St Co- lumba had received it, he says to the abbot Comgell who was sitting beside him, ' 0 Comgell, a day will come when this spring, from which this water has been brought to us, will no longer be no longer fit for man's use, . . . for it will be filled with human blood ; for my kinsmen and friends, and yours, according to the flesh, the Hy- Niall and the Cruithnians,' [i.e., the Irish Picts of Dala- radia in the County of Down and the southern part of Antrim,] ' will wage battle in this neighbouring fortress of Dnn-Cethern; anil a certain man of my race will be slain in the aforesaid spring, with whose blood and that of others the well of the spring will be filled.' And this true prophecy was fulfilled after many years," &c, &c. ( — Adamn. 1. i. c 49, p. 92 96.) This anecdote shows that Adamnan knew nothing of any quarrel between Comgell and Columba.
w This interview, like the former, Adamnan dates as happening immediately after the conference at Druim- ceatt. (L. i. c. 50 : pp- 97-99.) It is mentioned to intro- duce the fact that St. Columba was enabled propheti- cally to know and describe the character of each contri- butor, and to impose upon him a suitable penance for his besetting sin, of whatsoever nature it was, by simply looking at the articles which he had furnished for the entertainment.
x Adamnan relates that once in the island of Tly, the holy face of Columba beamed with joy and rapture ; then suddenly became overcast with sadness- Two persons, Lugneus Mocublai and Pilu a Saxon, who witnessed the change, inquired the cause ; to whom, after exacting a promise of secrecy daring his life-time, the saint ex- plained : — " This day, thrice ten years are completed since my settlement in Britain : and often during that time have I devoutly asked of God that at the end of this thirtieth year he would release me from my pilgrimage and call me to the heavenly land. And the cause of my gladuess was that I saw the angels sent from the throne
21
cises and occupations to which he had devoted his previous years. On the day which preceded his departure, he went forth to bless the barn of the monastery ; and, seeing two heaps of grain, he expressed his joy, that in case of his being obliged to leave the brethren, they were likely to have sufficiency for another twelvemonth. His attendant (who was called Diermit) began to remon- strate with Columba for his frequent allusions to his decease, at that period of the year ; to whom he communicated, under promise of secrecy till after his departure, that the approaching night was to be the last of his existence upon earth. " This day," he said, " is called in the sacred volumes, the Sabbath, which signifies 'rest' and truly it is a sabbath to me, because it is to me the last of this present toilsome life, and that on which I am to rest after all my troubles and labours ; for in the middle of this venerable Sunday night which is approaching/ according to the testimonies of the Scriptures, I go the way of the Fathers. For now my Lord Jesus Christ deigns to invite me, to whom I shall depart as I have said, in the middle of this night, on his own invitation ; for so it has been revealed to me by the Lord himself." As he returned towards the monastery he sat down to rest on a spot on which a cross was afterwards erected : (it was standing in the time of Adam- nan : ) while there, a white horse belonging to the monastery, to which Columba had doubtless been a kind and considerate master, approached him, thrust his head into the saiut's bosom, and caressed him with unusual manifestations of affection. The attendant would have driven him away, but Columba would not permit the faithful creature to be prevented from indulging his feelings ; and expressed his opinion that the Creator had by some means made it known to the dumb animal that it was soon to lose its aged owner. When the steed withdrew, the saint pronounced a blessing on the grateful and faithful creature.1 Removing to a slight eminence which overhung bis monastery, he stopped for a moment on its summit ; and lifting up his hands, he blessed the convent, predict- ing that the place, though then small and poor, would be held in veneration not only by the kings and tribes of Ireland, but of foreign and barbarous nations ; yea, by the saints of otber chiu'ches. Returning to the monastery, he sat down in his private apartment, and occupied himself in tran- scribing a copy of the Psalms, in Latin ; and having written the words — " Tliey that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing" (Psalm xxxiv. 10,) he said — " Here I must stop at the foot of the page ; let Eaithen write what follows."" The saint soon after attended evening service in the
on high to carry away ray soul from the flesh. But be- calculation is followed, according to which each day corn- hold, now, having made a sudden halt, they are standing menced and ended at sunset : the Sabbath embraces the on the ruck beyond the frith, desirous to come nigh, to period from sun-set on Friday till sun-set on Saturday ; summon me from the body ; but they arc not permitted and the evening and night which succeeds Saturday is
-for the Lord, though he had granted my earnest counted as part of the Lord's Day. " The practice of
prayer that I should pass from this world to him this calling the Lord's Day the Sabbath commenced about
very day, hath, this instant, changed his purpose, lis- a thousand years after this date." (Br. Reeves, Adamn.
tening rather to the prayers of many churches on my p. 230, n)
account. To whom... he hath granted that, though z We could not refrain from embodying this incident
against my own will, four years more of continuance in in our brief narrative, because it seems to intimate very
the ilesh are to be added to my life," &c. &c — (Adamn. expressively Columba 's kindness of heart. " The righ-
1 iii. c- 22, pp 227-8.) teous man regardeth the life of his beast"
y'lt is almost superfluous to point out that, in the de- * This MS- of the Psalms is no longer to be found.
signalions of time which are here employed, the Jewish The " Cathach, ' already described, was once supposed
22
church ; whence he returned to his cell, and sat for the remainder of the night on his stone couch, delivering to Dicrmit some parting admonitions to the brethren ; exhorting them to preserve mu- tual and unfeigned love and peace ; promising them, if they adhered to his counsels, the help of God, the benefit of his own intercession, and not only an abundance of all things needful for tho present life, but the reward of eternal blessedness prepared for the observers of the commandments of God. When his last hour drew nigh, the Saint became silent ; but at the sound of the mid- night bell he arose in haste, made his way to the church, at which he arrived sooner than any of the brethren, and threw himself on his knees in prayer, near the altar. Dicrmit, his attendant, who had followed him slowly, afterwards declared that he saw from a distance the whole interior of the church filled with a supernatural light, which, however, disappeared the moment he ap- proached the gate, but not before it had been seen by some others of the monks, who were also standing at some distance. Dicrmit entering the church, exclaimed in a tone of sorrow, " "Where art thou, my father?" And, before lights could be brought, — groping in the dark, he found the holy man sunk on the ground before the altar. He raised him up a little, and sitting beside him, placed his head on his own bosom. The monks entering with candles, and seeing their venerable father at the point of death, began to utter loud lamentations ; but Columba, opening his eyes, looked around with an expression of the utmost happiness and joy ; " doubtless," says Adamnan, "beholding the holy angels sent from heaven to meet him." With Diermit's help he raised his right hand, and by a gentle movement signified the blessing to his brethren which his lips were unable to pronounce ; and instantly breathed his last.b His death took place on Sunday, the 9th of June, A.D. 597, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.
We have left ourselves no room to discuss the character and the services of Columb-kille ; and indeed the reader of the foregoing pages will be at no loss to perceive that we place a very high estimate on both. It is evident that he was a man of indefatigable perseverance in the discharge of the solemn duties to which he had consecrated his life ; that he pursued them amidst difficulties, dangers, and anxieties, under winch he never sunk for one moment ; that he led a life of the utmost self-denial ; and, having given himself up to what he regarded as the work and call of God, he fainted not, nor " was wearied in well-doing." It is evident that his efforts were most successful in the confirmation of the faith where it was already professed, and in its diffusion among heathens and idolaters. In Ireland he laboured among a nominally Christian people : but, although the whole kingdom had been won over to the profession of the Gospel through the labours of Saint Patrick and his companions, it is no impeachment of the zeal of those illustrious missionaries, nor any denial of their wonderful success, to believe, as we do, that in many parts of our native land Christianity was as yet professed without being heartily believed ; and that many vestiges of hca-
to be the last MS. written by the hand of Columb-kille ; b These particulars of Columba's latter end are copied,
but the whole is in one hand-writing, and the passage and almost literally translated from Adamnan. (L- iii. c. here spoken of does not close a page- 23. pp. 228-242-)
23
thenism both in matters of opinion and practice, still lingered among the people. The institutions founded by Columba must have tended greatly to banish these remains of pagan superstition. Wherever he planted a monastery, there was a missionary institute, whence Christian ministers went forth to instruct the ignorant, convince the doubting, confirm the wavering, and refute the gainsaying ; and to help forward, by the strenuous inculcation of the precepts of religion, the prac- tice of the virtues which Christianity enjoins. In these sacred asylums, many, wearied with the anxieties and the crimes of greatness, found refuge not merely from their outward enemies but from their own bad passions ; and were induced to dedicate to the service of humanity those ener- gies which had hitherto been devoted to war, violence, and ambition. In these seminaries alike of religion and literature, the young were instructed in the arts which civilize and refine the nature of man ; books were read, studied, copied, and multiplied ;c and provision was made for the supply of the spiritual wants of the coming generation. Even in Ireland, and among the Dalriadic Scots of North Britain, such labours must have had a most beneficial influence. Still more marked, however, was the benefit which Columba and his associates conferred on the heathen inhabitants of Caledonia, for whose good he abandoned his native country, and exposed himself to the disasters and dangers which could not fail to attend on missionary enterprise among such a people as the Picts then were. He must have gone forth each day to his spiritual labours among them " with his life in his hand ;" and the success which attended his exertions shows the prudence and wis- dom, as well as the zeal, with which they must have been conducted. The whole north and north- west of Scotland owes to him its conversion to the Christian faith. If any remains of Paganism were left which he had not himself been able to extirpate, they were speedily rooted out by the efforts of his companions and followers, whom he had stationed in various parts that they might complete an undertaking which exceeded the powers of any single man ; and who laboured in his own spirit and after his OAvn example. He found the Pictish people a race of barbarous pagans : he left them a Christianised, and, in some degree at least, a Christian people. After the time of Co- lumba, we hear little or nothing of heathenism as existing among the Picts. Nor is it probable that the Anglo-Saxons of the eastern coast of North Britain were excluded from a share of his anxieties and labours ; though circumstances — of which the essential difference of language was probably one — appear to have rendered his personal success among them less conspicuous. His successors in Iona, it is well known, were the instruments of converting the whole of the Anglo- Saxons north of the. Humber to the profession of the Gospel. d
<• The literary services of the monastic institutions of Hy took refuse from the Danes. We hope to see a
can scarcely be over-estimated. To them we owe the description of these beautiful Codices in the pages of this
transcription, and in many cases the preservation, of the Journal.
ancient writings, both sacred and profane, on which all dAidan, the apostle of the Northumbrians, whoso
our modern civilization turns as on a hinge. Columba kingdom extended from the Humber to the Frith of
was a famous copyist: and two of the most beautiful Forth, was an Irishman, and a monk of Hy. Dima the
existing A1SS. of the Scriptures were made in his monas- first bishop of the .Middle Anglians and Mercians, and his
tery of Durrow, and that of Kclls, in which the monks successor Ceollach, were also Irishmen ; the latter cer-
24
That his character was free from faults, we do not assert, nor do we believe. The venerable Bede appears to express himself with doubt as to his claim to some at least of the graces of Christian life :* though perhaps he did not mean to convey the unfavourable surmise which his words have been supposed to intimate. The most common charge made against him, is that of a tendency to vindic- tiveness ; a charge to which Dr. Keeves lends the high sanction of his name.f With a scholar so candid and so accomplished, we own ourselves as unwilling as we are incompetent to cope in con- troversy on such a point ; but it appears to us that the charge rests on insufficient grounds. The facts by which it is supported are, in every case that we can call to mind, miraculous legends. A slight is put on Columb-kille by some one during his life or after his death ; the saint intercedes with God, to inflict signal and summary vengeance on the persons who have failed to treat him with proper respect; and instantly they are visited with sudden death or some other direful calamity. Adamnan, O'Donnell, and oral tradition, are the vouchers of these facts. We presume Dr. Reeves will concur with us in rejecting the miraculous part of these narratives. It is, indeed, incon- ceivable that God should work miracles to gratify the malice of Columba, or of any man. But if the legend be rejected, what becomes of the imputation on the character of the saint ?
Here we feel ourselves impelled to say a few words with reference to the biographies in which these legends are found. Did their authors believe the stories which they record ? or did they, disbelieving them themselves, nevertheless desire to impose them on the credulity of posterity ? And first we must advert to the rules for composing history which were followed by those writers whom the biographers of Columba, and the authors of the lives of the saint in general, must have taken for their models. They imitated, as best they might, classical and ecclesiastical historians. Xow, Livy declares in the beginning of his History of Home, that he intended to embody in it legends to which he himself attached no historical value. Pliny, in the commencement of his Natural History, avows that he has inserted in it many things which he did not believe to be true, but which he thought would be amusiDg. Eusebius, the father of ecclesiastical history, has, in one nf his works, a chapter to which he has prefixed the scandalous title, — for scandalous it is in the work of a Christian bishop, — that it is lawful to promote the truth by means of falsehood ; and in his history itself, he avows that he suppresses the mention of the discords, dissensions, and fightings of the holy martyrs with each other, holding it to be his province to record only those facts which would be honourable to their memory. Here, then, the great pattern of church historians expressly sanctions the telling of falsehoods for a pious purpose ; and avows that he has himself practised the suppression of the truth, and felt it to be his duty to do so. In fact, that history is to be written for the sole purpose of making known the truth so far as it can be ascertained, is a purely modern
tainly belonged to the monastery of Hy : and the former of investigating the influence of the Irish Christians in
also, as is most probable. Finan, Cuthbert, and other 'the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons.
prelates of the North, were of the same nation, and e" Qualiscunque fuerit ipse," [Columba,] " reli-
members of the same institution. The third book of quit suecessores magna continentia ac divino amore,
Bede's Ecclesiastical History gives ample details; and regularique institutione insignes-" — Hist. Eccl-, 1. iii- c. 4.
ought to be carefully studied" by any one who is desirous ' For his strictures, see Adamn. Prol, p. lxxvii.
25
notion. The ancients believed that other objects, such as the reader's amusement, the indulgence of national pride or national hatred, the honour of the hero or the discredit of his enemies, might at times claim a sacrifice of truth, if the simple truth would not promote these views. It seems to us that the historians of St. Columba were influenced by the ancient rather than the modem histo- rical maxims. They wrote to advance their patron's honour and glory. What they looked upon as calculated to promote his honour, they eagerly adopted, on the slightest grounds of tradition or probability ; and nothing appeared so well calculated to effect this end as endowing the hero of their tale with prophetic and miraculous powers, which marked him out as the especial object of the Al- mighty's love and care. Hence the supernatural facts in the life of Columb-kille grew under the hands of successive biographers. Cummcneus, who wrote about seventy years after the death of the saint, has a few supernatural incidents ; Adamnan, who wrote about a hundred years after Columba's decease has a very great number ; and O'Donnell, who wrote nine hundred years after the event, has an enormous quantity : insomuch that Dr. Lanigan, who shows no inclination to re- ject mediieval miracles in the mass, is, nevertheless, forced to exclaim " We are not bound to admit miracles on the testimony of such writers as O'Donnell !" We extend this principle to Cummeneus and Adamnanus. We think it evident that they were inspired with a fervent reverence for the patron saint of their fraternity, and the founder of their convent ; that they were easily persuaded to believe (or at least to record, whether they believed or not) whatever redounded to his honour, and tended to inspire men with respect for his authority ; and that, even if they had any suspicion in their own minds as to the accuracy of some of the facts which seemed to have this tendency, they would have deemed it a duty to suppress their doubts. We do not believe that they invented the wonderful stories which we read in their pages ; but we believe they would have deemed it wrong to subject them to the ordeal of historical criticism. The stories themselves are of various kinds. Some are perhaps physical occurrences misinterpreted : dreams, visions, &c, arising from natural causes, but ascribed to miraculous agency. Some, perhaps, arose from casual saj'ings, mis- understood, or converted by the event into predictions. Some of the miracles are evidently mere reproductions of histories already current, parodies upon the miracles of Scripture, or parallels to facts already recorded in the lives of other saints. Some are stated to have been wrought on the most frivolous and trilling occasions, totally unworthy of a divine interposition ; others for tbc grati- fication of passions, which a just and beneficent Deity must regard with detestation. The prophecies all relate to facts which had already passed before the bistorics were written : for neither Cum- mcneus nor Adamnanus pretends to record so much as one unfulfilled prediction. Many of the pre- dictions and angelic visitations are expressly declared by the historian to have been undivulged until after the death of Columba, when it was easy to invent and impossible to contradict them ; and not one is even asserted to have been written down till generations had elapsed since the time when it was alleged to have occurred. A;l 1 to this the circumstance that these histories were compiled at a time when every one to whom they were presented had a real or supposed interest in accepting
VOL. V!. j)
20
them as true ; and we have said enough to justify the rejection of all the rest, as well as those which wc find in the pages of O'Donnell.5
It was, indeed, unfortunate for the true fame of Columba that he fell into the hands of men who helievcd that, by writing of him as they have done, they promoted him to renown and dignity. But let the attention he directed to what he was, and did, not to what his mistaken panegyrists have asserted concerning him, and we do not envy the feelings of the man, whatever he the form of his religious faith, who can derive no edification from contemplating the labours of the self-denying life, and the calm composure of the peaceful death of the great and venerable Columba of TnE Churches.
A vast multitude of questions, of no little interest, some in an ecclesiastical, others in an archa?o- logical aspect, present themselves to the mind of the reader of Columba's life. What was the con- dition of religion in Ireland, at the time when he received those impressions which animated his pious efforts; and how far did the form of faith and worship which he established in his own in- stitutions, coincide with, or differ from, any that now exist ? What were the physical and spiri- tual characteristics of the monasteries wThich he founded, and what were the habits and acquire- ments of their inmates ? Were they really exterminated — have they emigrated to another region — or do they still survive in the persons of the Scottish Highlanders ? How far did the great monas- tery of Iona fulfil its founder's intentions, as a centre of spiritual benefit and Christian enterprise among the pagan tribes which then inhabited the greater part of the island of Britain ; — and par- ticularly, what was the amount of its influence on the Anglo-Saxons who had recently invaded its shores ? These questions we have neither space nor leisure to discuss : nor, perhaps, would the pages of this Journal be the most suitable place for the discussion of some at least of the foregoing topics. But they are deserving of a more thoughtful examination than they have yet received. On some of them Dr. Beeves has touched, with a master's hand ; and we know of no living man better fitted to probe them to their depths. ^
e We had intended to illustrate these positions by a few ready been translated and given to the public, by the
examples selected from the narratives of supernatural able writer who has discussed the life and character of
occurrences given by Adamnanus, but we abstain ; St. Columba in the pages of the Dublin University
partly because we have already occupied sufficient space Magazine, for September, 1857. It may be proper to
with this Biographical Sketch; partly because our mo- add that our own narrative and most of the illustrative
tives might be misunderstood; and partly because some notes, were written before that article appeared of the specimens that we should have selected have al-
27
NOTES ON THE HUMAN REMAINS DISCOVERED WITHIN THE ROUND TOWERS OE ULSTER,
WITH SOME ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS A "CRANIA HIBERNICA." BY JOHN G R A T T A N .
" 'Tis opportune to look back upon old times, and contemplate our forefathers Handsome formed
skulls give some analogy to fleshy resemblances ; and, since the dimensions of the head measure the whole body, and the figure thereof gives conjecture of the principal faculties, physiognomy outlives ourselves, and ends not in the grave." — Sir Thomas Bkowne, on Urn-Burial.
That the Cranium constitutes an element of paramount importance, in studying the natural history of man, is now universally admitted. Moulded upon the brain — that most wonderful portion of the human organism, in which is situated the material apparatus of the moral and intellectual faculties proper to man, and of the instincts which he holds in common with the higher orders of the animal kingdom — its form and volume, rightly interpreted, indicate with exactitude and precision the special mental aptitudes of the individual it represents, requiring but a commensurate foundation of trustworthy data to enable us to assign to each race its proper position in the social scale. Even by those, indolently or wilfully blind to its higher capabilities and to the all-important truths respecting it, which, dimly foreshadowed by contemplative observers from time to time, have been demonstratively promulgated to the world for upwards of half a century, the human skull is recognised as being, pre-eminently, that part of the skeleton which affords the best and most perspicuous characteristics upon which to base the classification of the various families of mankind. Hence all ethnological writers concur in attempting, after some fashion or other, to treat of its form and typical import, although, as might reasonably have been anticipated, the inquiry in such hands has never advanced beyond a vague and objectless empiricism, alike unworthy of the subject and unprofitable in its results.
So far back as 1798, Gall, in a letter to Baron lletzer, explaining the scope and object of his researches, announces them to be "to ascertain the functions of the brain in general, and those of i(s different parts in particular; and to show that it is possible to ascertain different dispositions and inclinations by the elevations and depressions upon the head ; and to present in a clear light the most important consequences which result therefrom to medicine, morality, education, and legisla- tion ; in a word, to the science of human nature."" And, writing in 1810, Dr. Klliotson announces
■ Gall. Boston Edition. lN'-'i. Vol.i., p. 7.
28
the result in these words : — " There is no fact better established in nature than that the different parts of the brain, like the different parts of the nervous system at large, have different functions, and that some parts are destined for intellectual and some for moral functions or feelings. As the size and weight of the brain must depend upon both these, it is evident that two brains may be of equal size, and yet the one be very large in portions devoted to intellect, and small in those devoted to the feelings ; while another is poor in the intellectual portions, and large in those devoted to the feelings ; so that a brain may be large or small in regard to certain moral or intellectual powers only."b
So recently, however, as 1848, in an elaborate article in the October number of the Edinburgh Review, entitled, "Ethnology, or the Science of Races," and which may fairly be presumed to embody the then prevailing ethnological views upon the subject, the writer prefaces his remarks upon " the most striking variations of bodily structure in man," by admitting "that, even from remote times, common consent seems to have connected the idea of intellectual power Avith the large dimensions of the anterior part of the skull and the corresponding lobe of the brain ;" and yet, in the face of such an admission — to say nothing of the discoveries of Gall, an admission so sug- gestive of more minute analytical inquiry, and presumably pregnant with no unimportant results, — the reviewer appears to consider that Dr. Prichard's classification of skulls, under the three typical forms of oval, pyramidal, and prognathous, leaves nothing more to be accomplished or desired — a classification constructed upon a very cursory view of the subject, and unsupported by any attempt at measurement whatsoever. It is to be observed, however, that Prichard himself puts forward his views with considerable qualification ;c whilst Retzius, Carus, and Morton recognise the necessity for a more scientific mode of procedure, by endeavouring to base their investigations upon a numerical foundation. Unfortunately, however, the system of measurement adopted, with more or less of modification, by them all, is defective in many particulars, and open to some serious objections.
Retzius gives us, in figures, the length of the skull, its circumference, the breadth of the forehead, the breadth of the occiput, its height, the mastoidal breadth, zygomatic ditto, the height and breadth of the orbits, the height of the upper jaw, of the chin, and of the ascending ramus of the lower jaw, also the length and breadth of the foramen magnum.
Carus omits several of these ; but, on the other hand, makes some important additions. Thus, he gives the cubical capacity, the circumference, the length measured from the glabella to the most prominent part of the occiput ; the length, breadth, and height of its frontal, parietal, and occipital regions : what he designates their length being their peripheral extension along the median line from the naso-frontal to the coronal suture, for the frontal region ; thence to the lambdoidal, for tbc parietal region ; and from that to the posterior margin of the foramen magnum, for the occipital.
>> Physiology. 1840. p. 1074. <■ Nat. His. of .Man. p. 107-
29
The breadth of the frontal is taken at the most prominent part of the coronal suture, wherever that may be ; of the parietal, at the parietal protuberances, Avhether that be the broadest part or not ; and the occipital, wherever the bone is broadest ; whilst the different heights are measured from the auditory foramen to the most elevated portion of their respective bones. To these he further adds the length of the face, from the symphisis menti to the naso-frontal suture ; and its breadth, being the diameter between the most prominent points of the zygomata.
Morton gives the majority of these measurements, and adds some others. "What Carus gives in three sections as the length of the frontal parietal and occipital regions, Morton gives in one, naming it the " occipto-frontal arch," and gives besides what he denominates the " intermastoid arch," taken on the skull from the point of one mastoid process to the other. He gives but one vertical measure- ment, and that ho takes, not from the auditory foramen, but from the fossa between the condyles of the occipital bone to the top of the skull ; and, in addition to the gross cubical capacity of the skull, he gives, as accurately as he can, the relative proportions of its anterior, posterior, and coronal subdivisions. d
Of the great value of several of these measurements, so far as they arc indicative of absolute size of brain, there can be no doubt whatever. Others, being taken at positions varying with the varying form of each skull, do not afford the means of accurately comparing one cranium with another ; while all those taken from the auditory foramen are inherently vicious, and only calculated to mislead ; giving, not the true vertical elevation, but the length of the hypothenuse of the triangle formed by the true perpendicular and the semi-diameter of the base of the skull ; involving errors wholly incompatible with scientific accuracy, and which vary, with the varying diameter of the skull and the length of its perpendiculars, from half-an-inch to an entire inch.
]STor have phrenological writers been much more successful in dealing with thissubject. Though they have furnished many admirable contributions upon the cranial forms of different races and upon their associated moral and intellectual endowments, and although their authority has hitherto been received with an indifference and distrust chiefly attributable to prejudice and ignorance upon the part of the objectors, it must nevertheless be confessed that there exist some well-grounded objections to the general reception of phrenological measurements, as hitherto recorded. The majority of their numerical measurements arc similar to those adopted by ethnologists, and liable to the same objections : whilst their measurements of the special organs, in their various degrees of development, being dependent for their accuracy upon the natural endowments, tact, and acquired dexterity of the observer, require, to a large extent, to bc'acccptcd as matters of faith or trust — a mode of procedure unfavourable to the extension of scientific truths, and not unnaturally somewhat repulsive to the scientific mind. Indeed, phrenologists themselves have long regretted this defect, and expressed their anxiety for its correction. Mr. Combe, in commenting upon a table of measurements
d Crania Americana, ]>• 2 40
30
of national skulls, published in his System of Phrenology, [vol. ii., p. 371, 5th ed.,] observes: — " The measurements in the foregoing table do not represent the size of any organ in particular, for the reasons stated in vol. i., p. 156 : — they are intended to indicate merely the size of the skulls. They do not, however, accomplish this object successfully, in consequence of the impossibility of measuring irregular spheres by diameters. They are, therefore, indications merely of the length of the particular lines stated in the different skulls, from which a rough estimate of the relative dimensions of the skulls may be formed. A scientific mode of measurement is much wanted.
So far we look in vain, therefore, for that uniformity of method and that numerical precision, without which no scientific investigation requiring the cooperation of numerous observers can be successfully prosecuted. The mode of procedure hitherto adopted furnishes to the mind, at best, nothing but vague generalities, which it cannot by any effort of reflection reduce into definite shape and form ; and, till we can accomplish something more than this — till wc can record with something like accuracy the proportional development of the great subdivisions of the brain, as indicated by its bony covering, so that our figures shall convey to the mind determinate ideas of their relation towards each other, we shall not be in a position to do justice to our materials, or to interpret faithfully or profitably the natural hieroglyphs thus submitted to our examination. What we especially stand in need of is some method of measuring cranial forms and magnitudes, which, by combining perfect simplicity and facility of application with rigid scientific accuracy, shall command our confidence ; — by means of which the ethnologist may be enabled to record his own observations and to profit by the recorded observations of others, without the risk of misinterpretation ; — which shall afford a sound numerical basis for the phrenologist's special measurements ; — and by which, to a large extent, their general accuracy may be tested. 13ut, though an improved method of taking and recording cranial measurements would admittedly be of incalculable advantage to the phrenolo- gist, it is when looked at from an ethnological point of view, that the necessity for the alteration becomes most apparent. The phrenologist can pursue many of his inquiries, and demonstrate conclusively the soundness of his inferences, by the aid of detached or isolated specimens — each head embracing in itself all the necessary data by which its mental capabilities can be determined. But the ethnologist has to deal with tribes and nations. He stands somewhat in the position of the actuary who has to deduce congruous and general laws from an extensive collection of apparently incongruous and heterogeneous facts. In every age, and amongst all races, special individuality of character must necessarily have occasioned considerable modification of typical form ; so that no single cranium can, per se, be taken to represent the true average characteristics of the variety from which it may be derived. It is only from a large induction, therefore, that the ethnologist can venture to pronounce with confidence upon the normal type of any race, or reasonably expect to attain, in his craniological investigations, that measure of completeness necessary to rescue them from their present objectless character, and to impart to his conclusions scientific definiteness and value.
If an improved method of measurement be thus desirable, when treating of existing and ac-
31
cessible races whose crania form but one, though by no means the least important, element for determining the influences that may have contributed to their development and progress, — still more necessary does it become when we endeavour to investigate the moral, social, and intellectual condition of their remote predecessors, of whom we possess few, if any records, save such as remain to us in their rude structures and works of art, and in their own osseous remains. These latter are necessarily few in amount, widely scattered, singularly frail and perishable, and are day by day irretrievably disappearing before the unavoidable encroachments of extending civilisation. It is of the first importance, therefore, that our description of such should be as accurate and free from ambiguity as the nature of the subject will permit — the paucity of our materials affording but little prospect of our accumulating the requisite data, unless we can succeed in concentrating upon some recognised scientific plan, as in other departments of natural science, the detached labours of every competent observer.
Finding it totally impossible to furnish, upon any existing method, satisfactory measurements of some ancient Irish crania collected during Mr. Getty's examination of the round towers of Ulster, as well as from other collateral sources, the writer came to have his attention forcibly directed to the subject, and he devised, in consequence, an instrument for taking cranial measurements — a description of which, and of the method proposed to be adopted for recording the results, was published in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology (vol. i., p. 198). That communication was avowedly made, however, more for the purpose of eliciting the criticism of those interested in such investiga- tions than as a complete and matured plan ; and much subsequent experience and some friendly counsel, while they have confirmed the soundness of the principle involved, have led to considerable modification, both in the instrument itself and in the method of tabulating its indications.
In the instrument, as first constructed, each part of the skull had to be successively brought for measurement to a sliding scale, which indicated in inches its distance from a common centre, the result being at once recorded in figures ; and as these measurements were taken at fixed angular intervals, they furnished numerical data, from which sectional outlines of the skull could, at any time, be readily projected. But this method being liable to accidental errors, arising from hasty and inaccurate notation, and furnishing no means for checking or correcting them, it soon became .•Apparent that it would be much more useful to have an instrument by means of which the sectional outlines could be traced directly upon paper ; — the measurements to be deduced from them, instead of the outlines being projected from measurements, inasmuch as the outlines so taken could always be referred to as authorities for the verification or correction of their numerical equivalents. After some consideration, an instrument for the accomplishment of this object lias been contrived, with a description of which it is unnecessary to trouble the reader, upon the present occasion. It will be sufficient to state that, by means of it, sectional outlines of the skull may be taken, at any point and in any position — vertical, horizontal, or intermediate — without much trouble, and with reliable fidelity : that these outlines afford unimpeachable materials from which measurements can be taken
32
at leisure, with much greater facility and accuracy than could be arrived at by measuring the skull itself; and that they are readily convertible into numerical values, by the aid of which, and without any preliminary calculation, the form and dimensions of different skulls and of their different sections may be compared with mathematical precision. Upon this latter point, however, some further explanation will be necessary.
In entering upon an investigation where much is new and unexplored, it is very desirable that our inquiries should, if possible, be preceded by the examination of some cognate object, with the features and history of which we are acquainted. For this reason, therefore, the skull of the celebrated German philosopher, Spurzheim, the pupil and associate of Gall, has been selected for the purposes of illustration and comparison.
The exalted moral and intellectual endowments of Spurzheim arc upon record, if they be not even yet fresh in the recollection of many still living — for few that had the pleasure of making his personal acquaintance but must remember, after the lapse of even a quarter of a century, the singularly noble, contemplative, and benevolent expression of his manly countenance. That Gall should have considered him a befitting associate in his researches would, in itself, be sufficient to stamp Spurzheim as no ordinary man, even if his labours and writings had not abundantly testified to the fact ; and that misunderstanding and estrangement should subsequently have arisen between these two distinguished men is deeply to be regretted. To Gall must ever belong the unapproachable honour of having established his great discovery, and determined all its principal applications by his own unaided exertions ; but they wrong both him and Spurzheim who would deny to the latter a large and honourable participation in the subsequent progress and consolidation of the science. It is possible that he may have indulged the desire to occupy a more prominent position in relation to phrenology than, as having been originally Gall's pupil, he was entitled to do. Such a weakness might not have been incompatible with his organisation, — " and to err is human ;" but it is equally probable that, as in most similar cases, there were errors of judgment and of temper upon both sides. Certain it is, that the manner in which the question has been taken up and canvassed by those who would depreciate Spurzheim, appears to have been directed as much by a spirit of personal hostility as by a dispassionate regard for truth.
Spurzheim died at Boston, in America, upon the 10th of November, 1832, at the age of 56, of fever, brought on by over-exertion while engaged in delivering lectures upon the anatomy and physiology of the brain. The citizens of Boston conferred upon his remains the honour of a public funeral, retaining his skull, however, as the most appropriate and precious memorial that could be preserved of so celebrated a man. A cast of his skull was published shortly afterwards ; and from it the sectional tracings of which the accompanying illustrations are reduced copies, have been taken. It is a fine specimen of a well-developed head ; and, as the cast can easily be procured, and the mental endowments of Spurzheim admit of ready determination, it furnishes a very satisfactory starting point for such an inquiry as the present.
33
Of the measurements hitherto in use, any of real value have been retained, constituting, as will be seen, the first series in the Table ; and, as they arc chiefly indicative of volume only, they are given in the ordinary standard of inches and tenths. The measurements about to be described, being more of a proportional or distributive character, are based upon a different principle.
By common consent, the naso-frontal suture, and the external opening of the ear, have been selected as the most suitable fixed points from whence to take the majority of cranial measurements ; although, as already pointed out, considerable correction is indispensable in order to insure accurate results. In fact, the true centre from which vertical or radial measurements ought to be taken is not the auditory foramen, but that point where a straight line passing through the centres of both foramina is bisected by another straight line, continued from the naso-frontal suture; the suture itself being the zero point from whence their angular values may be determined ; as in our first Illustra- tion, where the profile or median section of Spurzhcim's skull is placed within a graduated circle — the auditory foramen in the centre, and the naso-frontal suture upon the zero-radius — a moveable graduated scale enabling the distance of any part of its periphery from the centre to be read off at once, and its angular position determined with the utmost facility. If these radial measurements, however, were to be given in inches and tenths, they would be comparatively useless ; inasmuch as the absolute measurements of the corresponding sections of different skulls can only be received as proportional to the actual length or other fixed diameter of each skull ; and, for the purposes of scientific comparison, the reduction of these to true values would oppose an insurmountable extent of calculation. Instead of this, therefore, the length of each skull, at one determinate' point, {viz. from 10 to 145 degrees,) has been adopted as its own standard of measurement. Taken as unity, and divided into 100 equal parts, this long diameter furnishes a scale upon which all the subordinate measurements are represented in decimals ; thus permitting, without the necessity for any calcula- tion whatsoever, the most perfect comparison between the sub-divisions of different crania, no matter how disproportionate their actual volume. For example, — -a skull 6 inches broad and 7^ inches long must be, proportionally, a narrower skull than another having precisely the same diameter but only six inches long. If each of these long diameters .1 inches and ~i\ inches) be divided into 100 equal parts, 6 inches will be found to extend to nearly '86 divisions upon the one scale, while upon the other it will only be the equivalent of '80, indicating, at a glance, the true proportional diameter of each skull; and so of all their other dimensions. Tor every practical purpose, measun '.cents, taken at successive angular intervals of 10 degrees, furnish abundant data either for conveying to the mind, or for projecting upon paper, the correct outline of any skull ; and thus all the prominent informa- tion to be derived from any profile drawing may be converted into intelligible numerical values, and condeiwi!, as in the Table, into a moderate-sized column of figures.
In the third Illustration, three skulls are given in profile; and in the accompanying Table the measurements from which they are projected are tabulated in parallel columns, so as to bring pro- minently before the mind, by the double evidence of form and number, their relative proportions.
vol. vi. i:
34
Thus, at zero, Spurzheim's skull exceeds No. 7 by 3 one-lmndredtlis, and No. 14 by 6 one -hund- redths ; at 30 degrees, No. 7 exceeds Spurzheim by 4, and No. 14 by no less than 15 one-hund- redths ; while at 150 degrees, No. 14 exceeds No. 7 by 5, and Spurzheim by 6. In like manner may any of the eleven columns of tabular measurements be compared with one another throughout their entire range. But the pro tile- view of any skull, no matter how artistically elaborated, fur- nishes but a very inadequate representation of its real character, unless accompanied by measure- ments of its transverse diameters at sufficiently numerous and constant points. Hitherto those em- ployed for the purpose have been too limited in amount, and too fluctuating in position, to be of any value. To remedy this defect, it is proposed to take transverse outlines of the skull at regular intervals, and from fixed points upon these to supply as many diametrical values as may be requi- site. In the second Illustration, six transverse sections of Spurzheim's skull are thus given : — one at 10 degrees passes over the top of the orbital plates, or nearly in the plane of the base of the an- terior lobe of the brain ; one at 60° and another at 120°, coincide pretty closely with the anterior and posterior boundaries of the parietal bones ; whilst one, severally at 30°, 90°, and 150°, intersects the frontal, parietal, and occipital bones about their centres. If each of these sections be divided into 3 parts of equal vertical elevation, by lines drawn parallel to their bases, the extremities of these lines, and of the base line, will furnish 3 fixed points upon each section, where measures of diameter may be taken, which, for the most part, will be found to coincide pretty accurately with the more prominent features of the skull; and, if the position of these points be marked upon their corres- ponding radii, in the profile section, (as in the first Illustration,) they will be found to divide it into three concentric zones, which, for facility of reference, may be designated the temporal, juxta-temporal, and peripheral ; constituting, as it were, a complete chart of the skull.
Commencing at its base, the mastoidal-diameter may first be noted ; next that of the meatus, or (to avoid the irregularities that would arise from penetrating more or less into its cavity) the diameter at a point rather above it, tipon the radius of 90° ; then, in succession, the several diameters of the temporal, and juxta-temporal, zones ; and lastly, the three diameters connected with the face, in the order laid down on the Table. One other section, the horizontal one, passing through 10 and ] 1-5 degrees, completes the series. [See second Illustration.] From it the length and breadth are determined, it being, in almost every skull, its longest and broadest section. These proportional measurements, therefore, being taken at unvarying and determined positions, and being recorded in a language whose symbols admit of no ambiguity, and arc universally intelligible, convey to the mind an amount of exact information such as no pictorial representation, nor any combination of words, could supply ; and, when systematically tabulated, afford facilities for comparison only at- tainable through the intervention of figures.
It may possibly be objected to this method that it involves too large an array of arithmetical figures, and demands too great an expenditure of labour; but what was ever yet accomplished, of any value, without some labour ? And, if it be desirable to furnish measurements at all, (and, from the fact.
35
that almost every writer upon the suhject gives them after some fashion, this is manifestly the case, ) surely it is of some importance that they should be adequate to accomplish the object in view, and, at least, be so taken and recorded as to convey truthful and intelligible impressions to the mind.
Moreover, as the requisite tracings and measurements are reduced by means of the Craniometer to simple mechanical operations, which may be faithfully executed by any intelligent assistant, the difficulties are much more apparent than real.
Having now explained, with as much brevity as the nature and importance of the subject would permit, the method intended to be employed for determining the dimensions and peculiarities of form observable in the Irish crania which are to form the subject-matter of this paper, the writer, though he does not enter upon the undertaking without considerable hesitation, indulges, neverthe- less, the confident hope that, even should the investigation in his hands yield no sufficient or con- clusive results, the materials collected will constitute, so far as they go, authentic and trustworthy data for future and more competent inquirers.
Prominent amongst the antiquities of Ireland stand its remarkable Hound Towers, structures of an architectural character so completely sui generis as to have neither prototype nor counterpart in any other land,e and whose date and origin are so admittedly remote, and were until recently so confcssetUy obscure, as to have afforded to successive generations of antiquarians an inexhaustible subject for discussion. Before the mystery which for so many ages enveloped them had been defi- nitely removed by the publication of Dr. Pctrie's work upon the subject, and while full scope was yet permitted for fanciful speculation and unrestrained conjecture, it came by some means to be surmised that possibly they might have been intended for monumental erections; that, in truth, they might be the still existing mausoleums of renowned men of old — of the high priests, perad- venture, of an eastern worship, which, paling before the effulgence of a brighter and purer faith, had passed into oblivion, leaving, witli the exception of these perplexing memorial.-, "scarce a wreck behind.'' Such an opinion once entertained, an appeal to the nature of their contents followed, as a matter of course ; and, as already stated by Mr. Getty, examinations set on foot by the South Munster Antiquarian Society, so far justified the supposition, as to prove that human remains had. in several instances, been deposited within the towers, lint the inquiry would appear to have been limited simply to the one object of obtaining countenance for the monumental hypothesis ; and without any sufficient appreciation, on the part of the inquirers, of the value which might attach to (he remains themselves if they should prove to be of considerable antiquity. Through the instrumentality of that Society, the towers of Ardmore, Cashel, Cloyne, Kinneigh, Eoscrea, and even of Brechin, in Scotland, were examined, with varying results. In some, human remains
e As Scotland was partially colonised by the Irish, from and Brechin, the only two out of Ireland, can scarcely whom it takes its present name, the towers of Abernethy be looked upon as exceptions.
36
were found : in some, not ; "while others bore palpable traces of having been previously disturbed ; but the proceedings, from whatever cause arising, (whether from having been imperfectly con- ducted, or obscurely reported,) had chiefly served to originate a discussion as to whether the remains so discovered were cotemporaneous with the towers, or had been subsequently introduced ; nor had there on any occasion been procured a cranium, or even the fragments of a cranium, sufficiently perfect to throw any light upon its own origin, or to interest ethnological inquirers in the result. In this state of the question, the discovery of an almost perfect skeleton within the round tower of Drumbo, as detailed by Mr. Getty, [Ulster Journal of Archeology, vol. 3, p. 113,] under cir- cumstances to satisfy such acute and correct observers as the gentlemen present upon that occasion that the body must have been deposited therein at the time of the erection of the tower, im- parted to the investigation a value which it did not previously possess : since, no matter in what manner, or to what extent, the discovery of cotemporaneous human remains within these build- ings might eventually be brought to bear upon the then disputed questions of their date, origin, and uses, the remains themselves being from a source so unquestionably Irish, could scarcely fail to prove a valuable contribution to the ethnological materials of the country.
Having enjoyed the privilege of accompanying Mr. Getty in the majority of his round tower ex- cursions, and having assisted personally in exhuming most of the human remains brought to light during the excavations, the writer is in a position to testify to the fidelity with which the details of the examinations made by Mr. Getty have been recorded by him in the pages of this Journal, and to express his own unhesitating conviction that the remains thus obtained must have been, at least, co-eval with the buildings in which they were interred. In every instance, but that of Trummery, (in "which there were exceptional peculiarities, both in the construction of the tower and in the mode of interment," one uniform series of phenomena was observable. After removing a greater or lesser depth of heterogeneous materials, evidently the sIoav accumulation of ages, a flooring of lime, more or less thick, was reached, from which downwards the successive off-sets that formed the base of the tower extended ; the interior being filled up with materials similar in all respects, except com- pactness, to the natural till or original soil upon which the foundation rested ; and it was in this disturbed soil, and beneath tins lime floor, without any exception whatever, that remains, when pre- sent, were found. As the result of his own observation, it would appear to the writer that, the foundation having been completed, and whatever was intended to be deposited within having been introduced, the interior was carefully filled up and levelled over, before proceeding with the re- maiuder of the structure ; and, that the structure of lime which, for convenience of description, has b ii n desi anted a "lime floor," resulted from the subsequent accidental dropping of the mortar, during the further progress of the building. Be that as it may, however, the existence of this pe- culiar stratum was so invariable, and any disturbance of it could be so easily detected, that nothing whatever was recog lis id as being authentically associated in date with the towers which was not discovered beneath i'c. Of eleven towers, examined by Mr. Getty, six contained human remains;
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four exhibited no appearance of ever having done so : and one had been previously disturbed. The skulls obtained were, with one or two exceptions, in so frail and perishable a condition, that it was impossible to remove them, except in almost hopeless fragments ; but, by carefully saturating these fragments with glue, cementing them together, and strengthening them with plaster of Paris, several of them have been satisfactorily restored.
The number of tolerably perfect skulls derived from this source, exclusive of a few fragments sufficiently large to be of some value, is seven ; namely, one from Drumbo, four from Clones, one from Drumlane, and one from Armoy. Two other skulls were also discovered during the progress of Mr. Getty's researches, one in St. Molaisi's house or chapel, Devenish, the other within the old Cathedral of Downpatrick ; both of which, from the circumstances under which they were found, the age of the buildings in which they were deposited, and the close proximity of these to the sites of Round Towers, may reasonably be associated with the latter in date. The human remains brought to light at Trummery and Inniskcen were too much decayed to permit of more than the merest frag- ments being preserved. During the sixteen years that have elapsed since the examination of the Hound Tower of Drumbo, a considerable number of skulls has been obtained, from time to time, of different dates and from various widely separated localities ; but, as the Crania of the Hound Towers form, as it were, the nucleus around which the others have collected, it is proposed to describe these five in the order of their discover}'.
(To be continued.)
i:\i\i.axation of ran illustrations.
Plate 1. — Tbc profile or median section (half size linear) of Spurzheim's skull, with the distance of its periphery from the centre, taken at angular intervals of 10 degrees, and its various trans- verse diameters marked upon it in decimal sub-divisions of its long diameter.
Plate 2. — Six transverse sections of Spurzheim's skull taken successively at 10, 30, GO, 90, 120, and 150 degrees, from which the temporal and juxta-temporal diameters are determined; and one horizontal section passing through the two points of 10 and 145 degrees, for determining its length.
Plate 3. — Profile outlines of three skulls (viz. Spurzheim's, No. 7, and Xo. 14,) all projected upon a scale of the same actual dimensions, and exhibiting the proportion which each would bear to the other if the three skulls were precisely of the same length.
The Taiu.k, appended to the present article, contains the measurements of eleven skulls thus taken, arranged in parallel columns; from the three first of which, Plate 3 has been projected. In consequence of the Table occupying two pages, its continuity has been unavoidably broken.
38
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40
A DIALOGUE IN TIIE ULSTER DIALECT,
'WROTE DOWN, PRENTET, AND PUT OUT, JIST TIIE WAY TIIE PEOPLE SPARES."
IXTEOBUCTION.
One day, in the month of December, in the " dark days" that happen at Christmas, a farmer of very small holding returned from his daily employment. He was known as " wee Jemmy McCreedy," of the townland of Ballinastarvet, which lies on the side of a mountain. His crop of potatoes had failed him ; his Hollantide rent was unpaid yet, and the agent had sent him a notice. Poor man, he felt age creeping on him ; besides, he was weak and desponding, and troubles had made his wife peevish. Though it's wrong to " come over"1 what's private, or "let on" " ins an' outs" of a quarrel, yet the story may prove to be useful, and they suffer nothing by scandal.
J E M M r .
Auch! auch! there's another day over,
An' the year's comin' fast to an endin' ;
But two or three sich will desthroy me,
For my cough's gettin' worse, an' I'm waker.
Oh ! Betty M'Crcedy, what ails ye,
That ye can't keep a wee bit o' fire on ?
Go 'long, bring some clods2 from the turf-stack,
For ni}- toes an' my fingers is nippin." 3
B E T T Y . ~
What's the manin' ov all this norration, 4 An' me lookin' after the childhre' ? A'm sure, both my ancles is achin' With throttin' about since the mornin'. If ye hev been outside for a wee while, It's many another's condition. An' the days is n't long; A can tell ye, It's har'ly an hour since yer dinner. An' Jemmy, A may as well say it,
I Repeat. 3i Painful with oold.
_', Fragments of peats or turves. 4. Noise, quasi "oration."
41
There's no use at all in desavin', It's crosser and crosserye're gettin', Till my very heart's scalded wi' sorra. Deed an' doubles 5 A'llbear it no longer.
J E M m y . Well, Betty, bad luck to the liars, But there's one of us greatly mistaken. From momin' till day-li't-goin' 6 workin', Cleanin' corn 7 on the top o' the knowe 8 head, The Arine whistled roun' me like bag-pipes, An' cut me in two like a razure. A thrim'let an' shuck like an aspy, 9 While the dhraps from my nose, o' coul wather, Might 'a' dhrownded 1° a middle-sized H kitlin'.
Betty. Och! indeed yer a scar-crow, 12 that's sartin ; Lord help the poor woman 13 that owes ye ; But ye needn't be cursin' an' swearin' An' still east in' up 14 an upbraidin'. If ye think there's a liar between us, Jist look in the glass an' ye'll sec him. (Oh ! the bitterest words in his gizzard 15 Is the best A can git thram my husband.)
J e >r m y . Will ye nivvcr lave aff aggravatin' ? Now (pact 16 an' hev done. A forbid ye. —
B E T T Y .
Ob, indeed 'twas yersclf 'at begun it,
So A'll give ye back-talk 1" till ye're tired.
There was Johnny Kincaid in the loanin',18
.'). R< petition of an asseveration, like'' verily, verily." fives are duck-ling1, gos i;,ig, dar-ling (a little dear.)
(>. Twilight ; — the derivation is obvious. 12. A figure resembling a man, intended to frighten
7. Oats, birds.
s A knoll; as pow for poll, row for roll, seraw for l:?. An idiomatic expression for "wife."
scroll. 14. Reminding one of offences.
!>. Aspen. I.). Contemptuous expression for heart.
10 A ioeular idiom: 'a' is the uminphatie abbre- l(i. CV;'se:from "quit.''
viation for "have." 17. Responses or replications.
II. Witling, a little cat, viz. a kitten, Similar dim'mu- is. A country lane or " b<>n en."
vol,. VI.
42
Was afther me more nor a twel'montb, When you hadn't yit come across me, '9 But A hedn't the luck for to git him. He's a corpolar20 now on a pension, An' keeps up his wife like a lady, An's nate an' well dhrest on a Sunday.
Jemmy. Well, well ! hut there's no use in talkin', His crap disn't fail him in harvest ; An' forhy, 21 Paddy Shales isn't paid yet For makin' the coat that I'm wearin'. More 22 betoken, it wants to be mended, But ye nivver touch needle nor thhn'le. There's my wais'coat is hingin' in ribbons, With only two buttons to houl' it ; An' my breeches in dyuggins 23 an' totthers, Till A 24 can't go to meetin' on Sunday.
Betty. Och ! have done with yer schamin' religion, For ye nivver wos greedy for Gospel. Deed, bad luck to the toe 25 yC'<i g0 near it, If we cloth' d ye as fine as Square Johnston.
Ye wud slungc 2o at the backs o' the ditches, 27
With one or two others, yer fellas, 28
A huntin' the dogs at the rat-holes. Jemmy.
But I'm used to be clanely an' dacent,
An' so wos my father afore me ;
An' how can a man go out-bye, when
His clo'es is all out at the elbows ? B E I t y .
Well, yer hat disn't need any patchin',
An' A'm sure it's far worse nor the t' others ;
! ) Idiom for, " I had not met with you." when unemphatic ; and in similar circumstances '■
20. * orporal. becomes yer, " you" ye or yay, i- me" or " my" »wi
2). Besides. 25. Length of a toe, as foot, hand, cubit, naii. in
22 An additional fact to the purpose. 2i>. Lounge.
2'! Scraps or shreds 27. Dikes or fences-
24. This is the term of the first p> rsonal pronoun 28. Equals or fit companions.
43
I bought it myself in the market, From big Conny Collins, that made it, For two shillins, an' share of a naggin. 29 See, the brim is tore off like brown paper, Till ye're jist like a Connaughtman nager.30 An' then, as for darnin' yer stockin's, As well think ov mendin' a riddle. Why a woman's kep throttin' behine ye, Till she can't do a turn, nor a foundet. 31
Jemmy. Xow, jist let me alone ; an' believe me, If ye don't houl' your tongue in one minute. An' git me my supper o' sowins, 32 The same as ye say'd in the niornin', A' 11 warm all the wax in your ears, 33 An' we'll see which desarves to be masther.
Betty.
Och ! ye mane-hearted cowartly scrapins,
Is that the mischief 34 that ye're up to ?35
Ye wud jist lift your hand 36 to a woman,
That ye ought to purtect an' to comfort.
See here, 37 — ye're a beggarly cowart ;
If ye seen yer match 38 sthript an' fornenst39 ye,
Ye wud wish to creep intil a mouse-hole. 40
So ye needn't be curlin' yer eyebrows,
An' dhrawin' yer fist like to sthrek me.
God be thankit the tongs is beside me,
An' as well soon as sync, A may tell ye,
If ye offer to stir up a rippet, 41
20 The parties drank it unitedly. This is a frequent accent towards the commencement, custom, and is sanctioned by the Bacchanalian proverb, .'!.'>. Designing or intending-
" there's no luck in a dthry bargain." 3G. A periphrasis for " strike."
:\0. Negro, t lit? term being used in the general sense of 37. A frequent expletive, used for the purpose of iu-
savage, just as " Indian'' is in correct language. creasing the attention of the hearer.
31. Anything whatever. 38. A person of equal capacity.
.(2. Flummery. 39. Fore anent, i.e. opposite to.
33. A periphrasis for boxing the ears. 40. An exaggeration, frequently used in colloquial
"4. The word was formerly pronounced in this way, intercourse, belbrethe practice was so common of throwing back the 41. A racket, or violent disturbance.
44
An' thinks that yc'rc inipcrance 42 cows 43 me,
All the veins in ye' re heart44 ye shall rue it.
If ye dar for till venthur to hit me, 45
See, by this an' by that, ye' 11 repent it.
A'll soon comb4(> yer head with the crook-rod, 4<
Or sen' its contents shinin' through ye. 48
J E M M Y .
"Well, ov all the oul' wecrnin in Ulsther,
A nivvcr seen wan so curnaptious ; 49
It's ivvcr an' always ye're scouldin',
An' still finin' fault with a body, 50
For the turnin' o' sthroes, 51 or for nothin'.
Yer tongue wud 52 clip clouts jist like sheers,
An' from momin' till duskiss53 it's endless.
A'm sure if A wos for to bate ye,
An' give ye yer fill ov a lickin',
It isn't yer neighbours34 desarves it ;
But A wudn't purtend to sitch maneness,
Nor even my wit 5 j till a woman.
B E I T Y .
It's the best o' yer play 5G A can tell ye, An' now that ye're comin' to rason, Let me ax where ye met yer companions ? Ye've been dhrinkin' ; ye needn't deny it : Now don't look so black at me that 'ay, Nor sin yer poor sowl wi' more lyin'. Can't A see that ye smell like a puncheon? 57 (Oh ! the Lord 58 in liis marcylookon me,
42. Impudence.
4:;. Intimidates ; used by Scott Lake, " as your tinchel cows the game "
44 Compare this expres>ion with Cushla ma-chrec
45. This verb is mainly used to denote striking v. itli Hst ; imperfect, hot, or hut, occasionally used-
4l>\ Contemptuous menace to strike him (>n the he
47. An iron instrument, lor suspending the pot c cot ag'T's fire.
4^. There is a mixture of figures here, the latter live 1 from a gun.
; ). Quarrelsome and petulant.
50. An impersonal pronoun.
ol, Trifles, i.e., the turning of straws-.
the Lady of th-.
the
i.l. n a
de-
52. Is unusually sharp. 5:5- Dusk, or twilight.
54. Every branch of the Ilibernic dialect abounds ith indirect expressions like this.
55. Degrade my understanding.
56. Your best policy. This and other expressions : — take yer dalin' thrick out o' them,"" what's thrumph ?" take a han' ; " "as black as the ace o' spades';" "the \\ fingers," (iive of hearts). &c-, appear to be derived on; the practice of card-playing.
57. A puncheon of " liquor," [whiskey] of course.
58. By the lower orders the Deity is seldom spoken .' as " God," but usually as " the Lord.''
45
A dissolate heart-brucken woman,
While my cross-grained oul' snool W of a husban'
Huns spendin' bis money with blackguards.) 6°
J E M M y . "Will yc nivvcr ha' done aggravatin' ? 61 Why, tbc patience o' Job cudn't stan' ye. It's asy for you to betalkin', Jist sittin' at home on yer bunkers, «2 An' burniu' yer sbins at tbc greesbaugb. 63
B i: i t r . Ob ! I know very well what ye' re after, G± Ye wor spendin' yer money with weemen. Lord forgive yc, ye gray-beaded sinner, I suppose you'll b : poisonin' me nixt. It's that makes yc crooked an' fractious, G5 In the bouse with yer wife an' yer childtbre.
J E M m y . Will ye whislitCG -^i' yer capcrs67 an' blethers,68 Before ye bev dbriv me quite crazy, An' A'll tell yc it from the beginnin'. Yer oul' uncle Billy come past me About half an hour afore sun-set, An' he said we might shanougb C9 a minute In Okey M'Collisthcr's shibbeen. 70 It wos him that stud 71 thratc for the both of us ; An' good "2 luck to the dlirap bud a " Johnnie," «3 Cross'dmy corp"4 since cre-yestluTdayT'a mornin'. The d — 1 a mortyal was near us. lie ax'd for yerself very kine-ly ; An' siz I "as for Betty, poor crathcr,
.);). A sneaking "Molly Caudle" of a man. 68. Foolish talk, or nonsense.
(iO. This word is used in the restricted sense, of a (>!)■ Gossip in friendly contidenee.
person obscene in his language and actions, TO. A cottage in which whiskey is sold without a
()1. Annoying, cr provoking to anger. iieen.-e.
f>2. Squatting without a seat. 71. Paid for what was drunk.
(i.'3. lied ashes. 72- A euphonisni for 'bad luck-"
(>4- What you mean. 7:5. Ilali-a-trlass-
<>;>. Irritable. 74. l'as*cd my body, [i.e., my lips.]
fifi. Hush. 75. Tin.' day before yesterday. 17. Foolish actions.
40
She's gcttin' more donsy 76 nor ever ;
An' can't sleep a wink for rheumaticks,
Forbye both the weed 77 an' the tooth-ache."
Poor Billy appear' d very sorry,
An' say'd he'd call over to see you.
" Och," siz I, " but I'm badly 78 myself, too,
An' still gittin' ouldther an' waker ;
A'm afcard A'll be soon lavin'79 Betty,
Poor widdy, without a purtacter.
But A'll make out my will in her favour; —
An' she'll may -be live happy, in comfort,
When I'm put to bed with a shovel." 80
Betty. Now, Jemmy, ye mustn't talk that 'ay ; See, ye've set me a cryin' already, An' my heart's in my 81 mouth like a turmit.82 Poor fella, ye're kine at the bottom, An' A'll nivvcr-more taze nor torment ye. Why, yer poor bits o' breeches is wringin', 83 "With the damp that comes on at this sazon. Sit down on that furm84 by the hollan' 8a An' I'll brisk up the fire in a jiffey ; 86 An' see, here's half-an-ounce o' tobacky, Ye can jist take a dhraw o' the dudyen, 87 While the tay in the pot is confusin'. There's no time for a wee bit o' slim-cake, 88 So I'll jist whip 89 across to the huxter's 90 For a bap, 91 that agrees with yer stomach, ' )r two penny roulls, an' some bacon. H.
7'. Delicate in health. 81. This expresses the sensation caused by fright
77. A short 4V verish attack, to which women are some- 82. Turnip,
times liable 83, Saturated.
76, Unwell. 84. Form, or long bench.
79. The Irish have many circumlocutory expressions 8;"). A jamb to protect the fire from the wind of the
to represent dying. Thus, a man is "disaysed;" [i.e. door. It was introduced from Holland, and usually has
deeeaed.] or "departed;'' or "gone to glory;" or in the centre a triangular spying hole.
■ there's his place empty;" " they have lost one of the 86- An instant.
plac' :" be is •' undther board :" there's "a wake in the 87. A small pipe. This term is of Celtic origin, and
family ;" and if he was executed, he merely " suffered ;'' is frequently represented by "cutty."
or \\ as " put dov\ n " Even when foul play is suspected, 88. Bread made from flour and potatoes.
it is mildly suggested that some one "helped God Al- 89- Move quickly,
mighty away with the crathur." !)). A spongy cake of loaf bread.
*v>. Buried. 90. Grocer's.
47
T.HE IRISH DIALECT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
■' And they said unto him, say now ' Shibboleth,' and he said ' Sibboleth,' for he could not frame to pronounce it right.'' — Judges, xii-, 6.
It has been said that there are in the world about 2,000 languages, and of these again 5,000 dia- lects. In reference to the former, this is obviously an approximate calculation, which may in rea- lity not be far from the fact; but, -in reference to the latter, it is clear that only the more important ones have been taken into consideration. Many of the languages are evidently cognate in sets, as the Shemitic, Teutonic, and Celtic languages, or as the well-known languages of Latin origin. In other instances', where the varieties exist with every grade of distinction, it is sometimes almost impossible to say when differences of speech arc cognate languages, or merely variations of dialect. In general, when two persons can converse together, it is said that they speak the same language ; the forms which they use respectively being dialects only. This principle, however, is to be re- ceived with some modification ; for the Spaniard or Portuguese can make himself intelligible to the Italian, though we consider the speech of all the three as so many distinct languages.
The separation of languages bears a remarkable analogy to the separation of families ; and the comparison has not escaped the notice of those who have written on the subject. For example, two sections of the same people may be separated by war or emigration ; and, in the course of a few- generations, the language of each will become considerably modified, though still possessing the sub- stance of the original. But, in time, new divisions take place, in one or both of these populations, producing similar results ; and, in the course of successive generations, others still. It is clear that every remove places the new languages farther apart from certain others, and also from the original parental one ; until the marks of identity disappear one by one, and the relationship comes at last to be questioned, or at least to be admitted with doubt and caution. Hence languages are said to exist in families, and have their respective pedigrees ; or, to adopt another illustration suggested by this, the various twigs can he traced to main brandies, which again are related to a parent stem. It so happens that not far from home we have an interesting illustration of this principle. On the western coast of England and the Continent, we find on< group of languages, — the Welsh, the Curnish, i recently extinct in Kngland) and the Bas-Brelon, in France. These may be said to he fraternal, or peculiar dialects of the same original tongue; as is provcable, not merely on oral and philological grounds, but also on geographical and historical ones. In other words, not only do the spoken and written forms resemble each other at the present day, but we can show that proximity afforded op-
4$
port unities for frequent intercourse, and that, in point of fact, it actually took place. Another group of languages is found at other points ; the Irish, the most perfect branch of the ancient Celtic, the Scottish Gaelic, in the north and -west of Scotland, and the Manx, which is slowly expiring in the Isle of Man. These three present the same features of identity, and indeed were one language within the limits of the historic period ; so that we have thus a second triad of fraternal languages. To give the general idea, of their affinity, it will be sufficient to say that the two sets stand to each other in the relation of cousins.
In contrast with the tendency to assimilate, which printed books and standards naturally produce, is the fact that living tongues present very marked varieties. The inhabitants of the ancient Pro- vinces and even of the modern Departments of France, may be readily distinguished from each other ; Italian of various kinds is found within the Peninsula, and round the shores of the Mediter- ranean ; and German in great variety is spoken both among the States included under the " geogra- phical expression," and also in the border countries. The same may be said in a greater or less degree of other countries of Europe ; and, in Spain, not only arc the natives of the ancient Kingdoms still distinguishable, but even those of their constituent Provinces.
The same law applied to the languages which are now "dead." The known varieties in the Latin have reference to time rather than to place, its purity being reckoned by ages or periods ; but even geographically, at Pramestc, which is not far from Pome, "instead of ciconia they said Iconia." The contemporary varieties of Greek are noticed in the most ordinary grammars and other school- bunks : nor are wo to suppose that the four forms usually enumerated were the only ones, though, no doubt, they were the principal. The dialects of the Hebrew language arc noticed at two points of its history, twelve centuries apart. In the days of Jephtha, the men of Gilead slew the Eph- raimitcs at the fords of the Jordan, having identified each by his pronunciation of a selected word ; and again, when the disciple, Peter, had denied his Master, the hearers were unconvinced, the ground of their doubt being that he spoke with a Gallilean accent.
Accordingly, the existence of provincial peculiarities in the English language ought not to sur- prise us : they are not exceptions, but illustrations of a general rule. The educated Englishman can tell the native districts of twenty or thirty different persons, without any aid from the parish register. He identifies one as a native of Cork ; and others as from Aberdeen, Belfast, Lonelon, Xewcastle-on-Tyne, or Perwiek-on-Twecd. He tlistinguishcs the natives of Connaught, from those of Londonderry or Dublin; separates the Yorkshireman from his brother of Lancashire; the nortlu ni Welshman from the southern Welshman; the English-speaking Gael from the Saxon Scot; and, among this last class, can even assign geographical limits to some of its component members.
The tine.' gn at division ; of English, Scottish, and Irish provincialisms constitute only the rough
outlines of a general classification; and, in any one of the three countries, these are almost all that
are recognised in reference to the other two. Li addition to them, however, there exist subordinate
tii s of great interest, which are confined to separate shires, as Cuml crland, Here;' rd, Lin-
40
coin ; or sets of shires, as East Anglia, Northumbria, the south-east, the west ; or portions of shires, as Exmoor, Carlisle, Pilling, lloehdale, London, and the West- riding of Yorkshire. Forms of sen- tences are retained in one locality which have been extinct for centuries in others ; peculiar terms with perhaps collateral customs, illustrate the character of the population in mediaeval or even ancient times ; while whole classes of words lingering among certain grades of the population, enable us — like n geologist examining the ripple-marks locked up in a slab of sand-stone — to predicate something with certainty respecting the tides of population which have flowed over a district. The subject of mere pronunciation, though less interesting, is still very interesting. Thus we see the almost exclusive use of the voice consonants among " the Zedlanders" in " Zummezetzheer ;" the voiceless, on the Welsh Marches, as in the use of Taffy for Davy ; the interchange of v and iv among Cockneys, as illustrated in the conversations of " Sam Weller ;" the use of Scottish forms of vowels prevalent in Yorkshire ; the apparent hostility to the correct use of h, in Lancashire ; and the indescribable " hurr" of the north part of Northumberland. The publications connected with the Dialects of Eng- land proper are so numerous, that their titles alone have constihited a separate bibliographical work for neaidy twenty years ; and of humorous treatises written in local dialects, sometimes many thousands of copies are sold.
What is known as the " Scottish dialect," is in like manner not one, but many. The ear of a Xorth Briton distinguishes in a moment a native of Edinburgh from one of Glasgow ; a Berwickshire man from a Dumfries or Ayrshire man; and, generally, any of these from a person born north of the Highland line. While the English spoken is comparatively pure in Inverness, it is execrable in Aberdeen; and, in some parts, such as Orkney and Shetland, it possesses peculiarities of great ethnolo- gical interest. The remark of Lord Jeffrey, — that the Scotch is a separate national language, not a vulgar local dialect — is true, but with important modifications. So long as Scotland was a separate kingdom, with a separate metropolis, local aristocracy, and scat of legislation, there was no unanswer- able reason win* she should recognise English standards, or England, Scottish ones. Scotland had kept nearer to the original Saxon tonguo which prevails in both countries, while England had diverged considerably from it. In short, the two had ideas and standards of their own, wholly independent of each other, and were in a position analogous to that of England anil the 1 nited States of America, at present ; or rather they resembled the independent States of Europe, which speak the German or Italian language. But when London became the metropolis of Great Britain, in 1707. as it bad practically been for a century before, even the language of a former king [James L] would have been vulgar and barbarous; and it became the duty of every scholar to purify himself from local peculiarities of diction, and to mould both bis speech and his writing according to the best ex- amples in the united country. In after years, the language of Bamsay, Ferguson, Tannahill, and Barns, wa.s admired on totally different grounds ; but it was provincial and vulgar, in the same manner, though not in the same degree, as the ''brogue" of a Connaughtman.
The Irish dialect of English, which these remarks are intended to illustrate, can scarcely be
Vol.. VI. o
50
spoken of as an existing fact before the beginning of the eighteenth century. The English settlers of the Tale remained a set of distinct colonists till the close of Elizabeth's reign ; more exclusive than an ordinary garrison of ancient Rome was in a conquered territory, and in some respects like the present English at the Cape of Good Hope, or the French in Africa. The native Irish and they communicated with each other, it is true, but they spoke separate languages, and there was no fusion of the populations. Even after English law and order had been extended to the whole country, it was many years before anything like a dialect for the island could be said to exist. The older settlers were English by descent, who had adopted a few Celtic words for the expression of new ideas, and who had, no doubt, modified their utterance of vowel and consonant sounds, in the course of time, to harmonise with the predominant ones in their vicinity. The new immigrants from Eng- land spoke the language of the several districts from which they had come : and the Scotch settlers in the maritime counties preserved their own dialect with little or no alteration from that of their mother-country. The civilised Celts, on the other hand, spoke what is called "broken English.'" In the ballads of the republican and revolutionary periods of English history, the Celtic Irishman is i-( presented as using language similar to that which is found in the " Banjo" songs of modern times ; and the language of the old dramatists in their case differs very little from that which is put into the month of a modern Negro, in similar circumstances. Those who are familiar with the doggerel lines known as " Lilliburlero," have a favourable specimen of it ; and one sees part of the reason for the effect which this song produced, in the low intellectual grade which was thus evidently at- tributed to the persons represented.
During the greater part of last century, the language in Ireland was in a transition state. The inhabitant of a mountainous region, or a native of the south or west, though speaking English as his native tongue, and able to express himself with fluency and ease, was noticeable in a moment ; and the writers of fictitious tales (including Miss Edgeworth) have made merry with those who thought their tongues would not betray the land of their nativity. In the Scottish districts, oil the other hand, Hums' 8 Poems were better known a than in man}- portions of North Britain itself; and the rustic poets in Ulster, especially in Down, Antrim, and Londonderry, seemed to let their ideas flow in- sensibly in Scottish verse. There were two reasons, however, for the practice. One was, that their taste had been formed almost exclusively on Scottish models ; b the other, that by using more or
* The writer has known a child, six years old, able to repeat most of Ramsay's Gentle Shej/herd ; and such ballads as Johnnie Armstrong, Sir Patrick Spens, Annie O'Lochran, Lady Margery, &c, areas well known as Cowper's J>>hn Gilpin. There are hundreds of these traditional ballads, Scotch and English, which the reciti rs have never seen in print, but which they receive, and transmit orally.
bBurns's favourite style of verse, as exemplified in bis Addresses to a Haggis, to a Daisy, kc. ; and in Death and Dr. Hornbook, as well as in most of bis Epistles, is also a favourite one in the North of Ireland ; being, no doubt, imitated from him.
" Wee, modest, crimson-tippet tiow'r,
Tbou'st met me in an evil hour ; For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem ; To spare thee now is past, my pow'r,
Thou bonnie gem."
Roueht Burns, Ayrshire. Then worst of all, the weaving trade I had to yield, and lift the spade, As only half my time I staid
Where I was bound ; The cause of which, work was ill paid,
The nation round."
Peter Burns, Ihwnshire.
51
fewer Scotticisms at will, they liad nearly a double power in the matter of rhymes. In the English districts, the genuine English form of the language prevailed throughout ; but it was spoken with a provincial accent down to .the beginning of the present century. In Ulster there is a tradition that the language is spoken in most purity about Lisburn ; but this notion must have originated more than a century ago, at a period when the children and grand-children of the original settlers still survived, and the statement was unquestionably true.
The Irish dialect, in the sense in which it is used here, is not much older than the present cen- tury : for the fusion of the various portions into one homogeneous mass was previously incomplete. Many of the characteristic terms of it arc now disappearing ; for a higher intellectual tone has been given to the population by the Xational Schools, so that the words not found in printed books arc in a great degree disused by the rising generation. Of course there are broad distinctive features which mark the four Provinces ; and there are even peculiarities of Counties, or occasionally those of Parishes or smaller districts. These it is unnecessary to notice at present. It is curious to ob- serve, however, that, though the local peculiarities in Ireland are discernible by the Irish them- selves, they ignore the more general characteristics which belong to the whole island. Tims, the inhabitant of each Province distinguishes a person from any of the other three ; or the native of one County or Barony recognises the native of another; but he fails to distinguish between what is local and special on the one hand, and what is purely generic on the other. In like manner the members of a private family recognise each other by their differences, and at last wonder that any one can perceive a resemblance ; while a stranger notices at once the feature common to all, and marks it down, but it requires some familiarity to recognise the specific differences of individuals.
If, for the sake of distinction, we call the Irish dialect a national one ; it is obvious that it has less comprehension of characteristics than the provincial ones, and greater extension geographically or nu- merically. It drops the characteristics which prevail exclusively in Belfast, Cork, Dublin, or Galway, and embraces those only which are common to the whole thirty-two counties. Jt has been frequently brought before the public, but is especially known through Carleton's Traits and Stories of tl Irish Peasantry. In the more recent edition of that work, the author informs us tint at first hi> narrative was far more Irish than it became subsequently; but that the public taste would not now hear the dialect in its broadest form. The truth is, that the writer was at first too accmatc in his representations of dialogue ; for, by the aid of a very retentive memory, some of the sentences were almost literally what had occurred in his native district. They were, tin ix fore, ^roiincial pictures, not national" ones; and the public, as well as the author, are much indebted to the person who advised
■ 'Pi- Scottish idiom and words, as giv< n by Scott, in to the option and taste of the writer _ When I.urns de-
the Wavcriy V>wls, are recognised as national in every cided on appropriating a song of Bishop Percy's, he
part of t lie 'country ; but the Scotch of (J alt will always altered only three words in the first line, •■ Oh ! \nnnin
interfere with the popularity of his writings because "it wilt thou ijmvj wi' me;" bid the singer, guided by this
is low and provincial Sometimes a poem is Scotticised fact. Scotticises those Enelish words that admit of Uio
or Hihenneisrd by a single characteristic word or two, proofs, all through. Thus, "town"' and '* gown." in
as distinctly as by a thousand; and as dialects exist, the first stanza, become h-< 'i and in fact, in every degree of intensity, there is much left
52
this alteration— it is said, the late Rev. Caesar Otway. The Hibcmic dialect is often represented quite too accurately by Lover ; he fails in the process of generalising, and mingles with the pure vim' of racy Hibernicisms the dregs of provincial speech.
During the present century a great deal has been done towards the identification of parts of our standard English classics with our provincial English dialects ; on the same principle by which Homeric forms of expression lingered, some here, some there, through ancient Greece, nearly a thousand years after " the blind old man" had gone to rest. There are Spenserian expressions and Chaucerisms to be found yet among the peasantry, probably in every county in the British Isles. The lower classes of society do not change their fashions in dress, manners, or language, so rapidly or so frequently as the middle and upper classes do ; and thus archaic forms, which were supposed to have perished long ago, are found to survive in obscure spots beside us. Great credit is due to the literary antiquaries who have illustrated Shakspeare and "rare Ben Johnson" from the lips of our working men, and who have elucidated our various local d dialects from the writings of almost ail our mediaeval English writers. On the one hand, they have given a dignity and an importance to expressions which are now contemptuously designated as vulgar, and have shown that certain literary inquiries cannot be prosecuted successfully without a knowledge of popular speech. On the other hand, the obscure and neglected writings of the past come home to us with renewed force and beauty, when Ave find their characteristic expressions still interwoven with domestic life among us. Some inquirers have mingled the illustration of manners and customs'" with that of language, and have thus given a double interest to their researches.
It has sometimes been surmised, but the fact is not generally known, that for the purposes of philology, criticism, and literary history, the dialect of the English language in Ireland is one of the most interesting in existence. Its basis is the old English of the era of Elizabeth, as spoken by the middle classes and yeomanry from before the period of James I. till the Rest T.'?.tion. In general it was carried to Ireland at the re-settlement of the country ; on which occasion almost every por- tion of Great Britain contributed its quota of poptilation. These carried over many words which were probably unknown in any of the districts separately ; and the difficulty of communication with
{i " Much of the peculiarity of dialect, prevalent in specimens of the various dialects." — Bosworlh's Anylo-
Anglo-Saxon times, is preserved even to the present day Saxon Dictionary, — Preface.
in the provincial dialects of the same districts. In these e '' No inconsiderable part of this work relates to diet,
local dialects, remnants of the Anglo-Saxon tongue may dress, buildings, employments, sports, and amusements,
be found, in its least altered, most uncorrupt. and, there- municipal regulations, legal terms, religious ceremonies,
fore, most perfect state- Having a strong and expressive names both of persons and places, popular customs;
language ot their own, the people had little desire and few and. in every department of them, one of my leading aims
opportunities to adopt foreign idioms or pronunciation, has been to show that the knowledge of words is neither
and thus to corrupt the purity of their ancient language. the least compendious, nor the least sure way of coming
Our present polished phrase and fashionable pronun- to the knowledge of things. I have likewise ventured
ciation are often new ; and, as deviating from primitive occasionally to introduce literary remarks and eriti-
usage, faulty and corrupt. We are, therefore, much in- cisms, illustrations of obscure and difficult passages in
debted to those zealous and patriotic individuals who ancient, English and Scottish historians and poets, and
have referred us to the archaisms of our nervous Ian- not a few on the Scriptures them -elves." — Original Vro-
guage, by publishing provincial glossaries, and giving spectus to Boucher's Archaic Glossary.
53
other parts of the empire previous to the application of steam, prevented the introduction of any very marked changes subsequently. The original colonists of Xcw England, in like manner, carried over with them the language and manners of their own time ; hut, unlike their countrymen in Ireland, they were not a separate people. A continuous stream of immigration from many points removed everything like fixity of character ; so that the very last place to which we should think of turning for any illustrative trait of the Pilgrim Fathers is the spot in which they found a home.
In addition to the Scottish poetry produced in Ulster, other varieties of English existed in Ireland before the assimilation had taken place to its present extent. The Fingallians, near Dublin, had a dia- lect of their own, a glossary f of which is still preserved ; and the inhabitants of the barony of Forth, in Wexford, presented an address g to the Lord Lieutenant, in the ancient dialect of the district, about the year 183G. At the present moment, thousands of single words and idiomatic expressions, which do not belong to pure English, can be identified with those which are still used by the populace in different parts of Ireland; and the same words, or others, however vulgar they may be supposed to be now, can be shown to be identical with the courtly phrase and standard literature of the olden time. The truth of this, and of much more to the same purpose, is not only a probability, but an established fact. The words have been collected, over a period of nearly a quarter of a century, and their illustrative bearing has been noted at the same time. In that period, a considerable number which appear in their alphabetical places have disappeared from among the population ; and if another generation were permitted to pass away, the character and interest of the Hibemic dialect would, it is to be feared, be practically lost for ever. Many of these words admit of a three-fold illus ■ tration. A qitotation from Chaucer, Layamon, or Shakspeare, for instance, shows that the term is pre- served in our old English literature ; another, from a tract illustrative of an English provincial dialect, shows the paternal spot on which it is still found; and a quotation from some of the Ilibernic ('lassies, or from the popular Ballad Poetry of Ireland, establishes its use there. A very large num- ber of words and phrases, however, do not admit of such extensive illustration, though they appear in one or two of these sets of authorities.
As it is intended to give, in the pages of this Journal, at least copious illustrations of this Die - tio.vahy of Htberxicisms, any extended reference to it would be premature; it may be sufficient to enumerate a few of the points which it will illustrate.
A coincidence of ideas is to be expected ; but sometimes it meets us in forms that are very in- teresting. For example, there is an Irish superstition that a mother who suffers her child to be reared apart from her, and who at length loses it by death, will not know it in heaven; though this idea is also provident elsewhere. It receives a beautiful illustration in Shakspeare' s King John,h when Constance' appeals to Fandulph the Legate, respecting her son Arthur, that he will pine
f Only two copies arc known to exist, one in tin1 pos- Mrs. Hull's lr,ln\d.
session of the writer, find the other in the collection of : \<-\ 111.. Simmii-4.
Lord Talbot do Malahido. : Another idea of tier's may be placed ill amusing eon-
- This is printed, willi a modern version, in Mr and trast with a modern one, thus :—
54
away as a prisoner, and that she will not recognise him in the next world. But the topics most inti- mately connected with the subject are old words, j quaint expressions,11 terms of Celtic origin,1 well- known words used with a wrong meaning,"1 (i.e., too limited,0 or too extended,0) grammatical peculiarities,1" dialectic and vulgar forms of correct English words,'1 &c. Of some of these, single illustrations are given below.
It may be satisfactory to the reader to allude more pointedly to one subject — pronunciation. Nothing is more certain than that several sounds which arc Irish to-day, and, therefore, classed with impure English, were pure classic English more or less than a century ago. It is difficult to prove what the sounds of a language were at any previous period, and hence the doubt which hangs over the Roman pronunciation of Latin ; but happily, English poetry, which is regulated by sounds as well as measures, affords us material aid on this point. An analysis of Pope's rhymes is extremely interesting. It exhibits a vast number of singular coincidences, which are evidently not individual efforts to help the rhyme, but the application of certain understood principles, the nature of which our extensive induction now enables us fully to understand. Thus, " Rome" is pronounced Room* in the two instances in which it occurs, and is rhymed with doom ; (Scott, in Marmion, rhymes i with tomb ;) "devil" is divil,* rhymed in every instance with civil ; "none" is noanf correspond- ing to own, stone, alone ; " yet" is yit ; u " spirit" is sperrit ;T and so of many others.
There arc two English words, blood, andjiood, in which the diphthong oo has the force of short u; while in other cases it is sounded as in food. Rut the populace of almost every district in the
" My grief's so groat, That no supporter but the huge firm earth Can hold it up-" — King John, iii. 1. "With the weight of your grief, now I tell you, You'll break down the three-legged stool."
Lover. — 1'oji. Song. J ''The land fornenst the Greekish shore he hold, From Sangar's mouth to crook VI Meander's fall." Fairfax's Tasso, ix. 4. " I'm not savin' you wouldn't call me a liar as soon fornhint [fore-anent] my face, your honour." — Lover, Baddy the Sport.
t^And though I might, yet would I nat doe so, But eari'st thou playin' raket to and fro Natlh in dock out, now this now that Pandare, Now fouie fall her for thy wo that care-
Chaucer's Tro. and Ores., iv- 46\. i Mudyarn ["nniddya arran,"ihe bread-stick] a tripod of wood, to support farrels or quadrants of oat-cake, which are harnin' [hardening] before the fire.
■» Learn, to teach. " If thy children will keep my cove- nant and my testimonies that I shall learn them, ("teach," Authorized Version.) Psal. Ixxxii., 13- Now cheare up, Sire Abbot, did you never hear yet That a fool he may learn a wise man witt.
Old Ballad— K. John and, Ab- of Canterbury. It's long before you'd think of larnin him his prayers, or his catechiz. — Cart.eton — /'• F- and Funeral. n Travel, to go on foot. ■j Sore-foot, a misfortune of any kind.
P For example, new conjunctions, — still-an'-with-all ■ moreover-nor-that, when done.
q Bother, for pot tier, fordther for furtherance, leggin' [of a cooper's vessel] for ledging rFrom the same foes, at last both felt their doom, And the same age saw learning fall, and Home,
Pope —Essay on Criticism. < These I could bear, but not a rogue so civil, Whose tongue will compliment you to the Devil- Pope. — January and May. '" 'Tis with our judgment as our watches; none Go just alike, yet each believes his men.
Pope. — Essay on Criticism, 10. u I've had, myself, full many a merry fit, And trust in Heaven 1 may have' many yet-
Port. — Wife of Bath.. v Behold, Sir Balaam, now a man of spirit. Ascribes his gettings to his parts and merit.
Pope. — Moral Essays. Praise to thy eternal merit Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Ordination Service. That's beautiful sperils, anyhow,
Lever. — 0' M alley- With a right heroic spirit
lie was even, more endued; Fame and. glory did he merit, And his toes he still subdued.
Choker's Hist Songs of Ireland.
55
British islands, and certainly of all the four provinces in Ireland, adopt the short a in a certain sot of words, e.g., gud, stud, wild, shod, &c. jSow, it is remarkable that Pope, in sixty-nine couplets, lias the pronunciation stud (for stood J forty-eight times, ivud (for would) seventeen times, and gud (for good) four times; but such words an food, wood, snood, are never pronounced with the short w by the populace, neither do we find one instance of it in all his voluminous writings. The follow- ing parallel explains itself: —
Classic English. Thus round Pelitles, breathing war and blood, Greece, sheath'd in arms, beside her vessels stood. Pope. Horn. IL, xx, 22.
Soon pass'd beyond their sight, I left the flood, And took the spreading shelter of the wood.
Pope. Earn. Odys., xiv., 388,
HlBERNICISMS.
My lord, this moment, as I firmly stood, Lodg'd in my post, near the adjoining wood.
Battle of Aughrim, p. 25.
I strove in vain, and by his side I stood, Till as you see, I dyed my sword in blood- Ibid, p. 18.
One of the most characteristic pronunciations in the Irish dialect is the substitution of the sound a, as in tabic, for e as in hero. This occurs not only when the sound is represented by the diphthong ea, as in sag for " sea," but also in other words, as complate, desave. In this instance, also, we can quote an analogy; for "break," "great," and "steak," still require the diphthong to receive the Irish sound. Xow, the writings of Pope exhibit no fewer than seventy-six examples of this pro- nunciation, in cases where we should now call it decidedly vulgar, did we not know how to make allowance for the changes of time. It is interesting to compare, with the examples from Pope and others, a genuine specimen of Hibernic literature ; and such we find in a dramatic pamphlet just quoted, of very extensive circulation in Ireland, entitled the Battle of Aughrim and Siege of London- derry. Other illustrations arc readily procured.
Classic English. Hibernicisms.
Hi re thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey, Led by brave Captain Sandays, who with fame
Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea. Pluug'd to the middle in the rapid stream.
Pope.— Rape of t/ie Lock, iii. Battle of Aughrim. p 6.
The plots are fruitless which my foe
Unjustly did eone* ivc : The pit he digg'd for me has prov'd
His own untimely grave.
Tate and Brady. — Fsabn,'" viii., 14.
God moves in a mysterious w<vj,
His wonders to perform ; He plants his lootsteps in the sea.
And rides upon the storm.
Newton, Psalm xxxvi.
Without your aid, I will the foe defeat, To free my country and my lost estate.
Ibid, p. 10.
Or as two friends, who with remorse survey Their vessels sever*d on the raging sea ; Each gets a plank, and his companion leaves To the wild mercy of the raging waves.
Ibid, p. 30.
There are forty-seven examples in this version of the Psalms.
50
I am monarch of all I survey. My right there is none to dispute ;
From the centre all round to the sea, I am lord of the fowl and the brute. Cowper
-Selkirk.
Some, in his bottle of leather so great,
Will carry home daily both barley and wheat.
TUSSER.
The town of Passage is large and spacious,
And situated upon the sea; Tis nate and daycent, and quite convaynient
To come from Cork on a summer's day.
Choker's Pop. Songs* of Ireland.
And there's Katty Ncal, And her cow I'll go bail.
Lover. — Popular Song.
In a few instances, the fragrance of the shamrock has adhered even to our distinguished writers ; and occasionally through life. The poems of Parnell, for example, present a still larger propor- tion of If ibernicisnis than those of Pope ; and the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, frequently printed along with the poems of Pope, affords a ready instance of comparison. Some of Goldsmith's words remind us of the banks of the Shannon : the following is an interesting specimen. In a great part of Ireland, "vault" is sounded vau't ; and, in like manner, "fault" is fail' t.
HlBERNICISMS.
If I don't be able to shine, it wiil bo none o' my fa n't. Carleton, — Valentine McClutchy.
Classic English. Whan that she swouned
Next for faitte of blood.
Chaucer. — Cant Talcs.
Let him not dare to vent his dangerous thought A noble fool was never in & fault.
Pope. — January and May.
But mine the pleasure, mine the fault..
And well my life shall pay ; I'll seek the solitude he sought.
And stretch me where he lay.
Goldsmith — Hermit.
Yet he was kind, or if severe in aught The love he bore to learning was in fault.
Goldsmith — Deserted Village.
God pardon me for cursin' the harmless crathurs, for sure, Sir, 'tisn't their faults. — Carleton, 1'oor Scholar.
Other points relating to this subject will he noticed in future communications ; but the writer requests that the present may be regarded merely as a sketch, in part suggestive and in part ex- planatory. Anything like an attempt at an analysis of the Hibernic dialect of the English, in a short paper such as this, has been studiously avoided. A. Huaik.
* In the poem entitled Doneraile Litany (Croker, p. 1 84) there are only forty-two couplets, in each of which the word Doneraile is rhymed. Eight instances of this
Hibernicism occur, as it is rhyned^with seal, veal, wtal, peal, meal, steal re-veal, con-gel.
57
MILITARY PROCLAMATION, IN THE IRISH LANGUAGE, ISSUED BY HUGH O'NEILL, EARL OE TYRONE, IN 1601.
The two following documents relating to the history of Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, are now laid before the reader in a printed form for the first time.
No I. is a military order or proclamation issued by Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, on the 2nd of Feb- ruary, 1601, nearly one year previously to his defeat at Kinsale, 3rd of January, 1602. The language is technical, and exceedingly curio as; the exact spelling of the words, both in the Irish original and the contemporary English translation, being preserved in this publication ; and two pa- ragraphs left untranslated by the Government interpreter, are rendered literally by the present Editor. The name of this interpreter has not been discovered.1
No. II. is a letter from Sir Geoffrey Eenton, chief Irish Sccrctaiy, and was written to Sir llobert Cecil, on the 5th of December, 1601, immediately after the Ulster chieftains had set out for Kin- sale, to assist the Spaniards. The reference to Tyrone's private family is very curious, and shows what accurate information had been communicated to the Irish secretary by his spies in Ulster. The descendants of Cormack, Tyrone's brother, referred to in this document, are still extant in Tyrone, under the name of MacBaron.
Of the history of Hugh, the famous Earl of Tyrone, but little is known previous to the year 1585, when he was declared by the parliament then assembled in Dublin to be the true heir of Con, the first Earl of Tyrone. Shane O'Neill, the celebrated chief or prince of Tyrone, had asserted and offered to prove in England, in 1562, that Matthew, the father of this Hugh, was an illegitimate son of Con, the first Earl, and that he (Shane) himself was the true heir to the earldom ; but though this illegitimacy was much talked of, and intended to be thoroughly examined into, from 1562 till 1567, a parliament convened by Pcrrott in the year 1585, in Dublin, decided that Hugh, the son of Matthew, was the true heir to the earldom of Tyrone. The subject, however, still remains in profound darkness, and will remain so for ever unless (he State Papers happen to contain
/Ife was probably William Doync. or Sir Patrick Irish language well, was sent ft prisoner to England Crosby, The great Florence MncOarthy, who knew the some short time before-
58
some correspondence on this state secret. Ferdoragh, or Matthew, the supposed bastard, eldest son of Con, first Earl of Tyrone, married Joan, the daughter of Maguire, (Cueonnaght,) and she had for him two sons — Hugh, afterwards Earl of Tyrone, and Cormae